Solemnity

Dec 12 2024

God Our Joy, God Our Blessing

For twelve years, I taught scripture to sixth and seventh graders on Wednesday evenings. Each year, when we got to the Beatitudes, they would roll their eyes and go “duh.” They’d heard it before: “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

I tried another tactic; I created a debate. One of you convince us that the Beatitude is true. Your opponent will persuade us that it is not true. For example, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Yes? Show us how that works. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” No? Hmmm.

Now they were excited. Twelve-year-olds like to win arguments. The next Wednesday, you could feel the energy in the room. When we came to “Blessed are the clean of heart,” a girl walked confidently to the front. I had heard the boy who was to debate her practicing in the hallway: “Clean of heart—hah! Gangsters get away with all kinds of things! Who needs to be clean of heart?” He was ready. The girl told a story. “When my grandma was a teenager, she said that she was really mean. She deliberately hurt people. She didn’t want anything from anybody. She never listened to her parents. She liked to live wild. One day, she was bored. She just sat and watched the clock tick. She watched the second-hand move round and round . . . and suddenly she realized if that clock kept moving, her life was going to end. She’d be gone. Dead. And what would she have done with those minutes? Something moved inside of her heart. She thought about God. She didn’t want to be mean anymore. She wanted to be clean. So she changed. She started to pray. She went to church. Now, for me, she’s the most loving and wonderful grandma any girl could want, a real saint. ‘Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.’ It’s true.”

The boy stood up to begin his rebuttal. He sat back down. “How can I argue with that?” he said.

Consider/Discuss

There are plenty of arguments about why Christianity is only for the foolish. Clean of heart—ha! Merciful—that’s only for the soft. The meek— they get walked on. But one living example of a saint, someone who lives a good and kindly life, filled with the Holy Spirit, is like a mountain peak that rises radiant above the clouds. That one life outshines any negative arguments. On this All Saints Day, what do you know of ordinary saints who have had their “robes washed” by the Blood of the Lamb? This week, share with someone a “before-and-after” story about what the Lord has done to create a saint you know.
Every saint is called to conversion, allowing the Lord to purify him or her. Some conversions are abrupt, like the grandmother in the story, who turned a sharp corner in her life toward goodness and God. Some conversions come like a long slow curve that takes you gradually around a bend to set you on a different path. What has your conversion story been like? As you strive toward holiness, what change are you currently working on?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, thank you for surrounding us with saints. Some have gone before us and are worshiping you forever. They were poor in spirit, pure of heart, merciful, peacemakers. Some live among us, still working their way toward you. We thank you for them all. Lord, we too want to be saints. When all is revealed, we want to be like you, for we shall see you as you are. That is so great. Thank you! Help us to turn the corners of conversion and lead us in the paths of holiness. Praise and honor to you, Lord Jesus Christ!

Dec 12 2024

Scripture Study for

John’s apocalyptic vision of the opening of the seven seals presents a series of disasters brought upon the earth in the final days, as God brings judgment on human and superhuman forces of evil and vindication for the servants of God. These visions are intended to give courage and hope to those undergoing persecution and even dying for their faith in Christ. Those who have been marked with the seal of the living God (as opposed to one of the seven seals) will be spared the disasters befalling the natural and human world. The number 144,000—not to be taken literally—is symbolic of the fullness of the number of servants. All will be saved. This number is indeed beyond counting and its diversity demonstrates the success of spreading the gospel and extending God’s reign on earth. All the saved join together with the angelic host to give praise and thanks to God in the heavenly liturgy.

Up to the point of today’s reading, the First Letter of John has been developing the theme of “fellowship with God,” which means a sharing in God’s eternal life (through Christ). This fellowship is manifested in loving others, repentance, and avoiding sin. To be in fellowship with God means to be a child of God. This places us in the light, in truth and goodness, not in the darkness of moral depravity. The relationship is in place, and is safe, as long as we remain in fellowship with Christ. Those who have hope in the future glory that they will share with Christ ensure that they are pure, avoiding turning away from Christ and his commandment, which in the Johannine literature is summed up in the phrase “Love one another.”

The royal road to eternal life, the kingdom of God, and “blessedness,” happiness, and joy in this life is material and spiritual renunciation. Those who would be disciples of Jesus must lose their own lives (which means not just their physical lives, if necessary, but especially their own wills, preferences, and “rights”) to gain life. This is what “poverty of spirit” means. Meekness, mercy, and peacemaking often go against our desire to strike back or get even, natural tendencies when we feel we have been violated. Purity of heart, hunger and thirst for righteousness above everything else mean setting aside absolutely everything and everyone who separates us from God or draws us away from God’s will. Persecution and insult lead to physical and social pain for the sake of Christ and communion with him. Those who are able to give up absolutely everything for Christ find joy and blessedness in this life and in the life to come.

Dec 11 2024

Our Daily Bread

An old black-and-white photograph sits before me. Twenty-five people stand on a southern Illinois porch in 1906. All in this farming family of Greggs and Wilsons and Humphreys are wearing their Sunday best. My father’s mother, Grace, is toward the right, a girl of fifteen. My great-great-grandparents sit surrounded by children and grandchildren. What occasion brought all of them together? The celebration would have included a big meal. Yet those in this picture are slim. To be satiated after a meal would have been a rare treat. On this day in the early twentieth century, they came together. They ate and were satisfied.

Most U.S. citizens in the twenty-first century are not slim. “To eat and be satisfied,” for many, is a daily occurrence. The Greek word for “satisfied” means “to be gorged”—for the well-fed, gorged implies gluttony. And yet, we ache in a different way. Depression, anxiety, and despair abound; though physically gorged, we hunger spiritually. My farming ancestors sacrificed to build a future for their children. Today, many have lost hope that the future will be better. Dreams are dashed. Deism, not Christianity, carries the day—many believe that the God who set this mess in motion has walked away and does not care. Though we hunger, nothing satisfies.

Today’s feast speaks to those hungers. Five thousand people came together. They were probably also slim. The Lord didn’t just take the edge off their hunger: they gorged until they absolutely could eat no more! And there were twelve baskets left! He who was the Bread of Life gave abundantly: the people ate and were satisfied.

He provides abundance for us as well. He has not walked away. He is here. He is with us now. As family, we come together for his meal. We are fed. We are satisfied.

The Bread of Life wants to nourish us. “Come to me,” he says. “Come hungry.”

Consider/Discuss

Human hungers can catch in our throat: We long for the past. We ache for fulfillment now. We are homesick for a better future. (Even those who recognize no god will admit to not being totally at home in this world.) Take a few moments each day this week to pray and allow the Holy Spirit to awaken you to the hungers that you carry. Don’t be afraid to look at them. Then when you come to the feast of Corpus Christi on Sunday, hold your hands open to offer God those hungers as you receive the Body of Christ. How does that heavenly food fill your soul?
As I look at the picture of my ancestors, my great-great-grandfather looks particularly thin. What crop failures and winters of hunger did he experience in the pioneering years of the nineteenth century? “Give us this day our daily bread” must have been very real to him. Think about your own times of hardship, whether physical or spiritual. How has the Lord provided for you, given you your “daily bread”?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, we bring you our aches, our yearnings, and our longings. A piece of dark chocolate satisfies for a few minutes. Then it’s gone. The adrenaline rush of a football playoff pleases us for a time. Then it fades. Making a wad of money feels good. Then it gets spent. Watching the sunrise brings joy to the new day. Then by evening, we’re weary. Earthly things are good. They are gifts from you. But they do not satisfy. Only in you can we find lasting satisfaction. Bread of Heaven, we open our hands to you this day. We offer ourselves. Take the offering of our lives, bless it, break it, and hand it back to us transformed. Thank you, Lord of Life, for nourishing us so abundantly!

Dec 11 2024

Scripture Study for

Abram’s meeting with Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the same God Abram worships (Numbers 24:4, 16), occurs after Abram has defeated a group of Canaanite kings who have taken his nephew Lot as a prisoner of war (14:12–17). The offering of bread and wine is an act of hospitality that may also be a sacrifice, although this is not stated. In any case, the priest calls down God’s blessing on Abram and blesses God for the victory given to Abram over the kings. The “tithe” Abram gives is a tenth of the spoils of his victory. Drawing on the mention of Melchizedek in Psalm 110, the author of Hebrews will associate his priesthood with that of Christ (7:1–25), which in later Christian tradition will add greater significance to the offerings of bread and wine.

Paul’s reminder to the Corinthians of the tradition of the institution of the Lord’s Supper flows from his criticism of their conduct during their own celebrations. By acting selfishly and shaming those who are poorer, they “show contempt for the church of God” and so betray the ethos that lay behind the Lord’s own sacrifice, which they are not only to remember but also to which they are to conform themselves (1 Corinthians 11:17–22, 27–34). Proclamation of the death of the Lord until he comes cannot be merely verbal but must be enacted in the self-giving of each member of the church. The “cup of the new covenant in my blood” reflects the sealing of the first covenant of Sinai with “the blood of the covenant” (Exodus 24:8). Just as the Sinai covenant was rooted in the previous covenant with the ancestors, so the new covenant sealed with Jesus’ blood is an extension of the older covenant.

Luke’s account of the feeding of the crowd ties it closely with his account of the Last Supper (22:19–20). In both scenes Jesus “takes” the food, “blesses” it, “breaks” it, and “gives” it. In the present scene, Jesus enacts the eschatological, messianic banquet, in which God provides abundantly for all, so that no one goes without or suffers, and even death is conquered (Isaiah 25:6–9). The verbal parallel between this scene and the institution narrative of the Last Supper invites the reader to see the intrinsic connection between God’s care for our material needs and God’s care for our spiritual needs through the ongoing “feeding of the multitude” in the banquet initiated in the new covenant.

Dec 11 2024

United by Delight

The round table in my kitchen has four chairs. A fifty-pound bag of high-gluten flour sits on one of them. It is too big to fit in the cupboard. I take out flour from time to time when I need it for baking bread. Most of the time, Dan and I don’t notice that the bag of flour is there. It just sits with us at the table.

I have a friend who enlivens every party. She sat in that same chair. She laughed and I laughed and we talked all afternoon without stopping. After she left, I smiled for two hours, flooded with friendship, full of the joy of being together.

It is Trinity Sunday. What is the Trinity? Is it like a delicate clover with three petals? Is it like a noble flame with light and heat and a wick? What is it? In theological thinking, the Trinity has often sat at the kitchen table like that sack of flour, an “it” to be taken out from time to time when needed, but mostly just . . . there. Why does the Trinity even matter?

Jesus hints at deep friendship with the Father and the Spirit in today’s Gospel reading. The Spirit shares that which is of the Son and glorifies him; both of them exalt the Father, in a mutuality of intimacy. We don’t know specifically what the Trinity “is,” but we know that there is delight in what the Father, Son, and Spirit do. The Trinity is not an “it” to be analyzed, but a Who to be enjoyed: One who bursts with love and delights in the human race.

Divine friendship is also meant to be ours. Human life may afflict us, but the Holy Spirit has flooded our hearts with love, St. Paul says. The Holy Trinity is the life of the human party, sitting at the table, ringing with laughter and joy.

Consider/Discuss

Who or what is sitting at your table? Have you been taught to see God as someone who is just there, like a big sack of flour, useful to have when you need it? Or does God the Father/Son/Spirit make you smile, flood you with friendship, and bring you joy in being together?
Do you know all of the U.S. presidents in order? The countries of Europe that belong to NATO? The boiling point of water? Once it was important to have that kind of memorized information. (It still helps to know that a green light means go and a red light means stop.) Nowadays, most information can be found online in a fraction of a second. But wisdom? That is altogether different from information. How do we partake of the wisdom of God? Where have you encountered wisdom in your life?

Living and Praying with the Word

Holy Trinity, One God, flood us with your friendship. As we pray, fill us with the joy of being together with you. The vastness of your Being is too big to fit into our limited minds; we do not grasp what it means that you are Three-in-One and One-in-Three. But all through history, you been at work in various ways and at various times. You delighted in us at the moment of creation. You have become one like us in all things but sin. You dwell with us now. You lift us from our afflictions. You strengthen our character and give us hope. O Lord, our God, how wonderful is your Triune Name in all the earth!