Year B

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

The Ten Commandments summarize God’s expectations of Israel, partner in the covenant. By delivering Israel from bondage and bringing them into this relationship, God is forming a people who will be a “holy nation” (Exodus 19:6), set apart and shaped by God to manifest God’s character to the other nations. The commandments are a template, as it were, of the minimum standards by which Israel should conduct itself as a people and as individuals in order to be a holy nation that “looks like” God. This is, in fact, why God has created Israel in the first place—to be a “kingdom of priests” (19:6) to mediate God’s holiness and righteousness to the rest of the world.

As it is today, it was common in the ancient world for “thought leaders” to attract followers. The tendency to follow the most eloquent speaker has led to divisions in the Corinthian church. Thus Paul contrasts human wisdom, thought to be manifest in the persuasive speakers, with divine wisdom, which is found in the cross of Christ. Of course, the world does not see any wisdom in the cross, an instrument of torture and death for criminals, and it is thus a stumbling block for accepting the full gospel. Paul will struggle to get his audience to understand that what God has done in Christ cannot be understood or evaluated according to the “wisdom” of the broken social order. Nor can it be modified or diluted to make it palatable to the larger society.

A theme in the Gospel of John is that in Christ, the glory of God is in the world: The “Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (1:14). The Greek reads “pitched his tent among us,” a reference to the ancient tabernacle, which was filled with the glory (the presence) of God (Exodus 40:35). The scene this week picks up this theme by portraying Jesus as the new temple who, though destroyed by humans, will be raised again by God. It is this glory manifest in Jesus that allows him to perform the various signs that draw people to him. At the same time, Jesus is fully aware that human hearts are fickle and that even the divine glory can be rejected by “human nature” in its present state.

Jan 24 2025

Transformed by the Brilliance of God

I was shoveling the driveway. It was negative two degrees. The snow was deep. The sky was blue. The late February sun was strong. Sparkles of brilliant white glistened in the snow where the sun shone upon it. It was cold. It was very bright. I felt my eyes flooded with light.

As I tossed that white stuff onto the snowbank, I thought about the Transfiguration: Jesus bathed in light with a face shining like the sun, his clothes dazzlingly white. Maybe it was the brilliance of the snow or the brightness of the sun; maybe it was the contrast with so many drab and dreary months of winter gray; I don’t know which it was, but that image of “dazzling” grabbed hold of me. Dazzling—

God is dazzling!

I wonder, what did it feel like for Peter and James and John to be so dazzled by Jesus at the Transfiguration that Matthew, Mark, and Luke—all of the synoptic Gospels—tell this story?

What does it feel like to be dazzled? Other than snow in the sunshine, what kinds of dazzling brightness do we experience? I think of the shimmer of sunshine dancing on water . . . a mountaintop glowing with the pink and gold of a sunset . . . the twinkle of dew sparkling on spider webs in the morning sun. Moments of beauty flash into my mind. Tastes of God’s radiance shine through the created world.

The light of God enfolds us with the warmth of being beloved. As Isaac was beloved, as Jesus was the Beloved, so we too are beloved. To be beloved is dazzling. Radiant brilliance seeps into us.

Consider/Discuss

How about you? Have you seen the snow sparkle, the sun shine on the water, or the gold of the sunset? If not while shoveling snow, when and where have you been dazzled by light . . . astounded . . . awed . . . ?
If we want to experience God, how do we do that? This Lent, center yourself in the Holy Spirit and take little sips of belovedness. Ponder the dazzling brightness of God. For ten seconds, let your ribcage swell with the joy of Jesus; for twenty seconds, savor a child-like wonder; for thirty seconds, glory in the created world that you see in front of you. You are wanted, cherished, cared for: that is belovedness. That is prayer. In small sips, dwell, abide, and remain in the dazzling light of God.

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, there is much that we don’t know about your transfiguration. Maybe you were always dazzling when you walked on this earth and the Transfiguration was the only time the apostles saw it. As children of light, we are surrounded by an ocean of your divine light. Wherever we are, wherever we go, the Holy Spirit seeks to reveal beauty and goodness and dazzling Presence to us. You know our blindness. Show us your reality, Lord, and let us not shy away from being dazzled by you.

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

The relationship between Abraham and God begins with the promise of descendants. The son born of the barren Sarah is apparent proof of God’s trustworthiness. Now the order to sacrifice that son puts Abraham in a seemingly impossible position. If he disobeys God, the relationship is over. If he obeys, he puts to death the sign of God’s trustworthiness, which would also effectively kill the relationship. Abraham is famously stoic in this scene, and we have no idea what he is thinking, but his actions imply an incomprehensible trust in God in the face of this dilemma. Concentrating on the ethically problematic aspects of the story might lead one to miss what most ancient readers were able to appreciate, which is the profound trust, not just obedience, that Abraham manifests by his willingness to sacrifice Isaac.

The second reading also treats of the sacrifice of a son. Paul has been assuring his Roman audience that they are destined for glory as God’s adopted children in Christ (8:14–22). In fact, God’s benevolent providence is such that everything can be used to bring about this divine end; God’s purpose will not be thwarted (8:28). Because of this, there is nothing to fear. Paul drives this point home with the example of Jesus. The God who went to such great lengths for us as to allow the only-begotten Son to be sacrificed will surely not abandon us; the death of Christ is a sure sign of God’s good intentions for those who love. Only those who refuse to accept their inheritance can fail to receive it.

The transfiguration of Jesus takes place six days after he announced to his disciples that “the Son of Man must suffer greatly . . . and be killed and rise after three days” (8:31). The experience on the mountain thus points to the future by displaying the glory that Jesus already possesses as God’s Son. Although Jesus must suffer and die, his glorification is assured. Moses and Elijah, both of whom received a revelation of divine glory on a “high mountain” (Exodus 34:5–9; 1 Kings 19:11–13), represent the law and the prophets, both of which have prepared the way for the Messiah. The identity and mission of Christ are confirmed by both God and the Scriptures.

Jan 24 2025

The True Guardian of the Galaxies Leads Us into and through Lent

Out in the woods, I turn a corner. I stop suddenly. On the leaves in front of me, a red-tailed hawk is perched on the body of a squirrel. His beak snatches at its red flesh. The hawk’s black eyes stare at me. He goes back to picking at his meat, predator eating prey.

In the desert, Jesus was meat. How did he not get eaten by wolves in the Judean wilderness? Bears and lions roamed the hills. Jackals howled at nighttime. For forty days, by Mark’s account, the son of the carpenter dwelt among them. He was weak. He was exposed. He was vulnerable. He could have been picked to pieces. In that stark space—stripped of human support—the Savior of the world started his earthly ministry.

Lent is the season of the desert. We have forty days to ponder our vulnerability; wolves and hawks could eat us as well. We could be picked to pieces by the lions outside of ourselves or ripped to shreds by the jackals of our own minds and hearts. How are we to make it through this life? Is our own strength enough? In reality, in our emptiness, exposed and vulnerable, we are as defenseless as squirrels.

The Holy Spirit thrust Jesus into the immenseness of the desert. The Holy Spirits thrusts us into this season of penitence to recognize our need for God, to find God and to seek God. The goal of Lent is to strip away anything that keeps us from belonging to God alone.

The Creator of the universe is trustworthy. In today’s Genesis story, the Almighty creates a covenant of care for all creatures. In the wilderness story, the angels tend to Jesus. In our own littleness, we too are protected. Our God is vast and good, and yet remembers us. Under the divine wings, we find shelter. We will not be eaten.

Consider/Discuss

This week, we enter into this Lenten season of repentance and self examination for conversion. Do we believe that God is our protector, that God will act on our behalf? As we look at the wild beasts of life, what makes us afraid? What happens when we turn to our own power to save?
In the saga from Genesis, God works through the faithfulness of Noah to rescue a broken world. As we trust that God has this whole world in his hands, how are we being called to be both faithful and heroic this Lent? What is our part in making this world a better place?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, Savior of the world, you know what the wilderness is like. You have been there. We also have days when we feel the hot sun beating down hard; we also fear the cries of wild animals in the night—they make us afraid. Strengthen our trust and help us to cling to you. Almighty God, show us that you are with us. Strip away our delusions of self-sufficiency and help us to be willing to serve you and you alone. Holy Spirit, grant us the courage of the desert this Lent.

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

The flood in Genesis is God’s initial response the fact of human wickedness, which had filled the entire earth with corruption (Genesis 6:11–13). Afterward, God recognizes that this has not solved the problem of the human heart, whose “desires . . . are evil from youth” (8:21); a new plan will have been put in place. In the meantime, God establishes a covenant, not just with human beings but with “every living creature.” This covenant is an expression of God’s commitment to all that has been created. Even though human sin has brought corruption to the whole earth, God does not turn away, but prepares the way for a new plan that will address the problem of the human heart.

The author of First Peter refers to the time of Noah from two perspectives. The identity of the “spirits in prison” to whom Christ preached possibly refers to the spirits of those whose disobedience occasioned the flood. The point is that the account of the suffering, death, and exaltation of Christ should encourage his audience in their own sufferings (3:13–17). Peter also ties the flood narrative to baptism, suggesting that Noah and his family were “saved through water” (although actually they were saved from water). Through baptism one is renewed through the power of Christ. The “appeal” might also be translated “pledge of good conscience,” meaning that for their part humans promise to allow their lives to be renewed and to be faithful, particularly in a time of suffering.

In Mark’s account of his temptation, Jesus is in the desert “among wild beasts,” which represent the “wildness” of the desert as a place of spiritual struggle, as in the Exodus account. As in that same account, Jesus is attended by angels, agents of God’s protection. Jesus relives the experience of Israel, but unlike them he does not succumb to temptation. His proclamation is simple: The promised reign of God, in which all will be ordered according to God’s will, is coming to pass. The human response is twofold: Believe that God’s promises are being fulfilled and repent of any behaviors or attitudes that oppose the divine will.