Jesus says: "I Am..." focus for Lenten worship

This Lenten season, we will focus in worship on the “I Am” sayings in the gospel of John. Jesus says “I Am” – in Greek transliterated “ei/mi” – forty-five times, including when other characters quote his words. The first is in 4:26, when Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well “I am he, the one who is speaking to you” in response to her “I know that Messiah is coming.” Literally, Jesus says: “I am, the one speaking with you.” Finally, on the way to the cross, Jesus declares “I am” three times, in a dramatic encounter .
These statements are intended to connect the earthly presence of Jesus with his divinity, for in the Hebrew Bible the meaning of God’s name is closely related to “I am.” In Hebrew, God’s name is indicated with four letters. This is often transliterated YHWH in English. YHWH is literally “I am.”
This first appears in Exodus 3:14 as God says to Moses, “I am who I am.” God continues addressing Moses, giving him a charge: “Say this to the people of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.”
In the Gospel of John, the second time Jesus refers to himself as “I am” is in chapter 6:20 when he speaks to the disciples in the midst of a storm, saying: “It is I; do not be afraid” as he walks on water toward them. Literally, Jesus says: “I am, do not be afraid.” John 6:35 is the focus for the first Sunday of Lent: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Jesus proclaims this after the miracle of feeding five thousand people from five barley loaves and two fish.
In John chapter 8 Jesus says: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Chapter ten brings a metaphor connected to the beloved 23rd Psalm: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” “I know my own and my own know me.”
In John chapter 11 the raising of Lazarus from the dead is the setting for Jesus to proclaim: “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.” When Jesus washes the disciples’ feet the night before his death, he says: “You call me Teacher and Lord – and you are right, for that is what I am.” During the long discourse after the last meal and before his arrest, Jesus says: “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” In chapter 15 Jesus offers another metaphor: “I am the true vine, you are the branches.”
As Jesus is approached by those who wish to arrest him, “Jesus, knowing all that is to happen to him, comes forward and asks them, “Whom are you looking for?” They answer: “ Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus replies, “I am he, ” literally, “I am.” His answer causes them to step back and fall to the ground, such that they must ask the question one more time, and Jesus answers yet again. Finally, Jesus says: “I told you that I am (he) so, if you seek me, let these men go.” Thus, in this encounter on the way to the cross, Jesus says “I am” three times.
This Lenten season, may we encounter the Jesus who beckons us to come to him, saying “I am the one speaking with you;” “I am, do not be afraid!” “I am the bread of life! “ “I am the light of the world!” I am the good shepherd!” “I am the resurrection and the life!” “I am the way, the truth and the life!” “I am the vine!” and ultimately, “I am the one you are seeking!”

Blessings,

Brenda

Been to the Mountaintop?

This past Sunday, February 22 was transfiguration Sunday, when we remember Jesus meeting with Moses and Elijah on a mountaintop as he prepared to journey to Jerusalem. Peter, James and John were with him, and when they showed more interest in Moses and Elijah God spoke and said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!"

This past Sunday was also Youth Sunday, and as usual our youth did an excellent job leading us in worship. For the sermon several youth shared stories about how they have seen God as we remember how the disciples encountered God’s presence when Jesus was transfigured. The texts below give is perspective as to how earth shaking it is to encounter God, especially the passages from Exodus and Job. Hebrews and Timothy remind us of the uniqueness of God’s presence in Jesus Christ. How is the story of Jesus’ transfiguration connected to God’s appearance at Sinai in Exodus 19? What stories do we have about encountering God? I invite you to share them here by clicking the “comment” link at the end of the post.

Monday 2/23
Exodus 19:7-25
Hebrews 2:1-4

Tuesday 2/24
Job 19:23-27
I Timothy 3:14-16

Strength to Resist

In addition to being Youth Sunday, this Sunday, February 22 is also the Sunday when we remember the transfiguration of Jesus, when he communed with Moses and Elijah, during which time his clothes became dazzling white. For those of you who have seen (or read) the Lord of the Rings series, you may remember Gandalf. When we first meet him he is known as Gandalf the Grey because of his grey robes and grey hair and beard. But after battling and defeating an ancient foe, Gandalf is transfigured and his hair, beard and robe are turned from dull and dirty grey to dazzling white.

But along with Gandalf’s dazzling appearance came a new sense of calling and purpose. Gandalf knew he must resist the growing presence of evil in the world and his transfiguration/resurrection gives him the clarity and the strength to resist and prevail over the evil forces afoot. In the Gospels it is after the transfiguration that, in the words of Luke, Jesus “sets is face to Jerusalem,” aware of what awaits him there. It is after Jesus talks to Moses and Elijah (both dead for centuries by this time) that he begins his journey to Jerusalem, where through the cross he confronts and defeats the evil forces afoot in the world.

Moses, with the guidance and strength of God, stood up to Pharaoh and demanded that God’s people be set free so they might serve their God instead of living as slaves in Egypt. In the Old Testament Moses represents God’s law, or instruction. Elijah represents the prophets. The readings from I Kings below remind us of the contentious relationship between God’s prophets and those in power. These two central figures from the Old Testament remind us that God has always stood against the worldly powers that would enslave us and turn us away from the life and goodness only God can grant. By communing with Moses and Elijah, with the Law and Prophets, with the fullness of God’s word to Israel, Jesus is gaining strength and clarity to resist evil through the most unusual means of the cross.

Transfiguration Sunday is always the last Sunday of the season of Epiphany, and it’s important to note the movement we experience through the church year. The “New Year” begins with Advent, where we anticipate the birth of Jesus, the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel. At Christmas nature reflects what we celebrate: as we celebrate the birth of the light of the world, the days begin growing longer. During Epiphany we celebrate the appearance/revelation of Jesus as God’s Son: we remember God acclaiming Jesus as God’s beloved Son at baptism, we witness Jesus calling disciples and healing people as he begins his mission. The season of Epiphany always ends with the story of Jesus’ transfiguration, after which Jesus begins his journey to Jerusalem, the place of his crucifixion. Wednesday, Feb. 25 is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, the season where we reflect on what it means to bear our cross as Jesus journeys to Jerusalem to bear his.

What worldly powers are we called to stand against? How does the cross shape the way we resist evil? The readings from the New Testament below offer us hope for our own transformation even as they remind us that the world will often turn a blind eye to God’s saving action in Jesus Christ. How is God transforming us? How does the world resist the transforming presence of Jesus?

Thursday, 2/19
I Kings 11:26-40
II Corinthians 2:12-17

Friday 2/20
I Kings 14:1-18
I Timothy 1:12-20

Saturday 2/21
I Kings 16:1-7
Luke 19:41-44

Read Psalm 50:1-6 each of these three days

In Sickness and In Health

The readings for Sunday, February 15 focused on healings, whether the healing of lepers in 2 Kings and in Mark or the rejoicing of Psalm 30 as God turns mourning into dancing. The readings below help us gain some perspective on issues of sickness and healing. In 2 Chronicles, King Uzziah was stricken with leprosy because of his arrogance. In Acts Peter, who has no money to speak of, is nevertheless able to heal a crippled beggar. 2 Kings 7 tells the story of four lepers who, because they were outsiders, were able to discover an act of God. Job’s honesty in his suffering may help us give voice to our own struggles.

How do we understand God’s healing? How have either experiences of serious illness or the experience of caring for an ill loved one changed our perspective on the world? What are honest words we can offer about our experiences of illness and suffering?

Monday 2/16
2 Chronicles 26:1-21
Acts 3:1-10

Tuesday 2/17
2 Kings 7:3-10
I Corinthians 10:14-11:1

Wednesday 2/18
Job 30:16-31
John 4:46-54

Read Psalm 6 each of these three days

Social Lepers

The readings for Sunday, February 15 tell stories of lepers being healed. The prophet Elisha healed Naaman, a five star general in the army of a rival nation. We also hear the story of Jesus healing an unnamed man of leprosy. We can’t be certain about what types of diseases are considered to be “leprosy” in these passages. Naaman was a prominent leader, having contact with many people, including his king, so it is unlikely he was contagious. It is not exactly clear why the Law of Moses viewed lepers as unclean. It is possible they were viewed as unclean because they were not “whole” or “all one thing;” portions of their skin were healthy, portions were not. But if a leper’s skin turned all white and there were no signs of infection or irritation they were to be considered clean because they were now wholly white. Remember, Leviticus (where these regulations regarding leprosy are found) also forbids garments made of more than one kind of fabric (no polyester blends!) and forbids the eating of shell fish because these creatures live in the sea but do not have scales or fins like a proper fish “should;” they are part fish because they live in the water, but they are also part something else because they do not have scales and fins. Because things like mixed-fiber garments and shell fish are not reckoned to be wholly one thing they are not considered holy and are therefore unclean.

It seems that while the lepers in these stories would have experienced discomfort they were not facing a life-threatening disease. The most difficult consequence of their disease would have been the social consequences; they were social lepers. While Naaman was a public figure, surely his very visible disease made people apprehensive. And the Jewish leper healed by Jesus was forbidden to be an active part of the community, both in everyday interactions and by being forbidden to participate in worship because he was reckoned unclean. These healings are not just about the healing of the body, but the restoring of right relationships between the (former) leper and other people and the (former) leper and God. Once healed of leprosy people regain their standing before God and before the human community.

The readings below help prepare us for Sunday by giving us an understanding how Israel understood leprosy and how lepers were to be treated. What are the differences between the stories of Naaman and the unnamed leper Jesus healed? Who are today’s lepers and what is it that puts them on the margins? How do we welcome those who perceive themselves as being marginal? In Exodus the priest performs a ritual that demonstrates to both the leper and to the community that the (former) leper has been restored to full and right relationship to God and to the community. Do we have any such rituals?

Thursday 2/12
Leviticus 13:1-17
Hebrews 12:7-13

Friday 2/13
Leviticus 14:1-20
Acts 19:11-20

Saturday 2/14
Leviticus 14:21-32
Matthew 26:6-13

Patience and Longing

Our readings from Sunday, February 8 speak of hope and comfort (Isaiah), God’s work on behalf of the outcast and downtrodden (Psalm 147) Jesus manifesting God’s kingdom through healings and exorcism, and of Paul striving to remove any unnecessary roadblocks to the Gospel. The readings below help us reflect on the readings from Sunday. 2 Kings 4 helps us see that Jesus stands firmly in the prophetic tradition of Israel. The readings from Acts 14 and 2 Kings 8 reveal to us that healings performed by those who stand in Israel’s prophetic tradition, whether prophets such as Elisha or apostles such as Paul, generate mixed responses. Isaiah urges us to wait on the Lord, but Job, who had the patience of, well, Job, was not always so patient. His voice helps us to see that God does not expect us to wait silently, but welcomes our sometimes fiery cries of anguish and longing.

How do the readings from 2 Kings 4, Acts 14 and Mark 3 help us understand Jesus’ healing ministry? How does Job help us voice our own cries, even as Isaiah reminds us to be patient? How do we balance the tension between the fullness of God’s presence in Jesus and our longing for God’s to fulfill in full God’s promises?

Monday, 2/9
2 Kings 4:8-17, 32-37
Acts 14:1-7

Tuesday 2/10
2 Kings 8:1-6
Acts 15:36-41

Wednesday 2/11
Job 6:1-13
Mark 3:7-12

Read this portion of Psalm 102 each of these three days.

Sunday, February 8, 2009 Scripture Passages

Friends,

The passages from Isaiah is familiar to many of us as it is often read at a service of Witness to the Resurrection. It is a passage of hope - expressing God's power and care for the world - and affirming that God is present with us in the challenges of life. Have you not known? Don't you remember? Think about it! The rhetorical questions call us to stop and reflect on what God has done in order to give us hope in the present. I find a thread of connection between this call to stop and reflect and the Mark passage in which Jesus takes time away to pray. We are called to remember! And this memory gives us hope in the present which sustains us!

Blessings,

Brenda


Isaiah 40:21-31
21Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; 23who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 24Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 25To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. 26Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.
27Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? 28Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. 30Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; 31but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.


Mark 1:29-39
29As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” 38He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” 39And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

All Tangled Up

In different ways the readings for Sunday, February 8 concern both the freedom of God and human freedom. Isaiah reminds us that God has no equal and that God helps the powerless find strength. The Psalmist reminds us of God’s liberating presence amongst the brokenhearted. Paul speaks of the freedom he has to adopt the habits and traditions of the people he’s around in order to make the gospel intelligible to them. In Mark we hear stories of the sick being cured and of demons being cast out. We tend to view these stories as healings, but for Mark these stories may not have been as much about the mentally or physically ill being made well as they are about those oppressed by evil being set free.

The readings below help prepare us for the Sunday readings. The readings from the wisdom literature – from Proverbs and Job – seek to persuade us that evil leads to enslavement and it is only God who moves and acts in true freedom, making the case that obedience to God is the path to human freedom. Isaiah 46 picks up this theme by drawing our attention to the incomparable nature of God. The readings from Paul – Galatians and I Corinthians – speak of the way Paul uses his freedom in light of human traditions. Matthew speaks of Jesus’ freedom in the face of traditions that would restrain most from acting.

How do we understand freedom – both God’s freedom and our own? To borrow from Proverbs, what are the things likely to ensnare us, tangling us up and limiting our freedom? How does God use God’s freedom? How does this inform how we use our own? May these readings prepare you for more active participation in worship this Sunday.


Thursday 2/5
Proverbs 12:10-21
Galatians 5:2-15

Friday 2/6
Job 36:1-23
I Corinthians 9:1-16

Saturday 2/7
Isaiah 46:1-13
Matthew 12:9-14

Read this portion of Psalm 147 each of these three days.

Food Fight!

A theme from the readings for Sunday, February 1 is the relationship between knowledge and love. In Deuteronomy we hear the promise that God will raise up a prophet like Moses from the people of Israel who will lead the people in true knowledge of God. In the reading from Mark we are confronted with the disconnect between knowledge and love: the demon knows exactly who Jesus is (the “Holy One of God”) yet opposes God’s kingdom. In the reading from I Corinthians the church in Corinth knows that only the God of Israel, the Father of Jesus Christ, is real and that all idols are false and imaginary, yet they are tempted to use their liberty in a way that tears others down. In Paul’s words, knowledge (even true knowledge of God) puffs up, but love builds up. To skip ahead to I Corinthians 13 – the famous “wedding chapter” – faith, knowledge and prophecies are useless without love.

Our readings from Numbers highlight the strange relationship between knowledge and love. Balaam is something of a prophet, but he is a prophet allied with Israel’s enemies. On the one hand he acknowledges the God of Israel as true but he is forced to curse the Israelites by his king. The readings from Acts, I Corinthians and Jeremiah give us glimpses of how the church has helped followers of Jesus bring knowledge and love into a fruitful relationship with one another. The Acts reading is an attempt to allow Jews and Gentiles to share table fellowship with one another while respecting the traditions of the Jews and the honoring the liberty of the Gentiles. The compromise was to go back to the covenant God established not with Moses (which had very specific food laws) or with Abraham (which required male circumcision) but with the covenant God established with Noah, allowing for both the honoring of Jewish custom and Gentile liberty. Jeremiah’s instruction to Jewish exiles in Babylon and Paul’s teaching on marriage remind us that the place to balance knowledge of God’s will and love for God and one another is not in some future utopia, but here and now, when life is less than perfect.

In what ways do we struggle to bring knowledge and love together? If some of the major struggles and causes for division for the early church was over proper eating habits, what are the struggles that threaten to divide us? If the biblical story of God’s covenant with Noah helped bring clarity and resolution to these “food fights,” what biblical stories can help bring resolution to the conflicts we face? Below are the readings that help us reflect on this Sunday’s readings.

Monday 2/2
Numbers 22:1-21
Acts 21:17-26

Tuesday 2/3
Numbers 21:22-28
I Corinthians 7:32-40

Wednesday 2/4
Jeremiah 29:1-14
Mark 5:1-20

Read Psalm 35:1-10 each of these three days.