After Epiphany

Friday, after Epiphany

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Scripture Readings, January 10, 2025

1 John 5:5-13, Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20, Luke 5:12-16

If the letter from John is written for people who need to be reassured of what faith in Jesus means, the man in today’s gospel doesn’t need to read it. This man falls at Jesus feet and literally pleads for his help. There is no doubt about Jesus and what he can do. The situation is absolutely straight forward, he sees Jesus and pleads to be healed. He knows it’s just a question of whether Jesus wants to. “If you wish” he says.

Isn’t it interesting that roughly 70 years later John’s community of believers is getting confused about who Jesus is and what that means for them? For the man with the skin disease it was simple. Jesus healed people, would he heal me? I suspect there wasn’t any theology involved at all. The man wasn’t concerned about whether Jesus was the Son of God or not. He needed help, this was his chance.

Jesus wasn’t trying to teach this man anything either. There’s no instruction about how to live his life he just sends him to the Temple to fulfill the Jewish requirements for cleansing. If anything, Jesus is trying to keep it quiet. But that isn’t working because people are passing along the information, the “good news.”

It seems to me there’s a lesson here about keeping things simple and honest. About sticking with what you know. Jesus healed the man because that’s what he was about. The Psalm says God does that kind of thing all the time. For Jerusalem, “he strengthens the bars of your gates.” God has: “blessed your children,” “granted peace,” and filled people with the “best of wheat.” However, we are far more removed from the person of Jesus of Nazareth than John’s community and we often aren’t sure anymore what he can do. We wonder who he is. The challenges to understanding what meaning there is to human life come from way beyond variations in Christian faith to non-Christians, non-theists, humanists and even those who have no interest at all. So I think it’s important to know and hold on to what we believe. We need to understand what gives meaning to our lives. There are plenty of alternatives within easy reach.

For the man in the village, “when he saw Jesus,” he knew what he wanted. Maybe the problem is we don’t see Jesus anymore? Have we made Christian principles so abstract they are no longer connected to their source? Has it become hard to recognize the gifts God gives? For John’s community, John could say, “Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself.” Have we lost touch with God’s testimony: that sense within us that God is with us, that God makes the world a good place? Maybe that’s why we don’t see Jesus. Belief in God is a different world view. It’s not a magical world view. It does say we are not alone. There is more to life than what is on the surface and the evidence is in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus’ life tells us what God’s life is about. He is willing to heal us, but first we have to see him, to recognize that reality.

I believe we have the possibility of overcoming the challenges in our world because of our belief in Jesus and the life he lived. That belief forms the basis, a foundation if you will, for a solid happy life. It sets up a course of action we can follow. If we use the translation from the New Jerusalem Bible instead of the New American, we may have the best way to say it: “Who can overcome the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

Thursday, after Epiphany

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Scripture Readings for January 9, 2025

1 John 4:19-5:4, Psalm 72:1-2, 14, 15bc, 17, Luke 4:14-22

I think for 1 John it’s safe to say that to love God we need to love our neighbor. To be authentic Christians means we have to take care of each other. Which is exactly what Jesus is talking about in Luke’s Gospel today. When he reads Isaiah to his neighbors in his home town he is not only claiming to be the Messiah to bring about God’s promises, he is identifying what those promises are. From the time of Isaiah God’s salvation has meant: good news to the poor, liberty to captives, sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed and a year acceptable to the Lord.

I’m not sure there is much that can be added to that message. The challenge to us is will we do what Jesus says is the fulfillment of God’s promises. It’s apparent that so far in the history of Christendom we haven’t succeeded. Jesus literally embodied God’s fulfillment since he did all those things. The message being, this is the time for salvation from all that oppresses us. I believe each of us must embrace each moment, each decision, each choice we have with love for our neighbor. John says God have loved us first, now if we are to love God in return there is only one thing we can do. Extend love to everyone else.

It may be worth noting that this reading in the synagogue in Nazareth is the very beginning of Jesus’ work. Jesus starts at home. He doesn’t go off to some distant land or to people he doesn’t know. Jesus begins with the people who know him best. Maybe we should worry less about world poverty and care more and pay more attention to the people we grew up with. How are those relationships? Are there needs among our friends that are going unmet? Is there someone we know who needs to be set free from what oppresses them? Offering love to those closest to us may be personally challenging but it may also reveal exactly what we need to see as well. It may be the beginning of taking our faith seriously. That what we believe requires certain behavior.

Maybe if we could begin with those closest to us, if we could take each decision and choose based on the love of others we would accomplish what John’s letter claims, “the victory that conquers the world is our faith.”

Wednesday, after Epiphany

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Scripture Readings for January 8, 2025

1 John 4:11-18, Psalm 72:1-2, 10, 12-13, Mark 6:45-52

Actually I think today’s Psalm sums up the message in today’s readings.

For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
… the lives of the poor he shall save.

God will rescue us if we are willing to ask for help. However, if we don’t see ourselves as poor and needy we don’t ask. We often have a little too much desire to go it alone. We can be driven by fear and anxiety instead of by love.

Mark’s Gospel uses the disciples out on the Sea of Galilee to illustrate the problem. The disciples trying to do what Jesus asked of them are out in the middle of sea, on their own. They are having a tough time because the wind is against them. How often are we trying to do something but the prevailing attitudes, maybe our own habits are against us? Then out of the blue a figure of some kind, a ghost maybe, something they don’t understand is terrifying them. The wind and waves are bad enough but now this unforeseen, inexplicable thing adds to their fear. Amazingly, however, the very thing that was a source of their fear, the unknown, identifies himself and calls out that they don’t have to be afraid. What’s more, when he gets in the boat with them even the wind and waves subside. All that has made their journey difficult is brought under control. Jesus is with them and his presence changes everything.

With a different circumstance 1 John is talking about a similar problem, human fear. Fear caused by doubt, he mentions possible punishment, perhaps it’s loss of respect or friendship or not knowing how things will turn out. In John’s community, some of the people they knew had left and it was unsettling. They worried, perhaps the Spirit of God wasn’t with them anymore? John was able to tell them that the very act of loving one another was a demonstration of God’s presence. What’s more they believed in Jesus and that belief was another marker that God’s Spirit was with them. No need to fear. Wonderfully he says, “There is no fear in love.”

For me that is such a key understanding. It can be a basis for measuring our motivations, for reviewing our choices and evaluating what faces us. Is this about love or is this coming from fear? God is in the love. Fear comes from somewhere else. John stresses over and over, four times in this short section that “God remains in us.” In terms of Mark’s story, Jesus will stay in the boat as we make our journey. We certainly have to keep rowing but we shouldn’t have to fear.

Monday, after Epiphany

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Scripture Readings for January 6, 2025

1 John 3:22-4:6, Psalm 2:7bc-8, 10-12a, Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25

I think we need to begin with what Jesus says as he begins his public life, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This has been a strong influence on my own understanding of what Jesus was trying to do. The question for me focuses on what you mean by “at hand.” In my opinion it has too often been interpreted as some undefined future, perhaps when the world ends and God reigns over heaven and earth. Perhaps it just means it’s not here yet and someday life on this earth will be idyllic. Each of these responses is strongly influenced by ideas of what “the Kingdom of heaven” means. These are often images of life after death or God’s final victory in the end times, i.e. the end of the world.

However, I have come to believe that Jesus had something else in mind. That Jesus saw the Kingdom as a present possibility. It was “at hand” because it was available here and now. This view matches with Jesus own behavior. Today’s reading gives us a very nice summary:

“Teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people.”

The construction of this summary puts proclaiming the Gospel in the center of two actions, teaching and curing. So in the style of the time the author is telling us the point of both actions is proclaiming the Kingdom. So Jesus spent his efforts not just telling people about the Kingdom but bringing it into being by curing people then and there. The good news (Gospel) is the Kingdom starts here with lives made whole. We know that Jesus cures people again and again throughout the gospels. Today’s scripture scholars admit that he was probably a wonder worker. The result is pretty clear, “great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.”

It may be easy to go along with the idea of Jesus bringing the Kingdom into being for his contemporaries because we believe he is the Son of God. But history makes it harder for us to see the Kingdom as “at hand” for us. Too much bad stuff goes on to believe that God’s Kingdom could be part of our lives now. I think some of the answer is in our first reading where John is concerned about the anti-Christ or those people and things in the world which are opposed to Jesus and therefore the Kingdom he preached. The anti-Christ is often seen as a signal of the end of the world and John mentions this explicitly, “This is the spirit of the antichrist who, as you heard, is to come.” But then, significantly for my argument, says, “But in fact is already in the world.” This letter comes from around the time of the John’s Gospel, about 100 A.D. Already very early in the Christian tradition a sacred writer has to admit that end time events are already taking place. My point is, images and statements that can be interpreted as dealing with the final days of the human race are often also valid as statements about significance and meaning for human life. The Kingdom of heaven may well not be fully formed until the end of time but that doesn’t mean it can’t make a real difference for us right now. I believe that’s how Jesus saw it. The Kingdom is “at hand.” It is available to us if we act as John’s letter tells us, “we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.” This belief and resulting behavior can change us and the world we live in.

Memorial, St. John Neumann

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Scripture Readings for January 5, 2022:

1 John 4:7-10, Psalm 72:1-4, 7-8, Mark 6:34-44

Our first reading from John’s letter is so strong we can hardly ignore its call for love. I suspect most people accept the idea that love is synonymous with God. It’s also important to remember that we know this because of Jesus, who we believe was the actual expression of God in human life. I also like that John wants to draw a real connection between being a loving person and knowing God. The idea is that we should act as God acts and when we do there is a connection between us and God. John puts it this way: “Everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.” This is an example of how physical life and spiritual life are one thing and not separated. Today, however, I am thinking more about what it means to love.

Often when we think about God’s loving we can cast it in big dramatic terms like today’s Psalm: “Justice shall flower in his days, and profound peace, till the moon be no more.” These are descriptions of what Messianic times will bring. This is a description of heaven, if you will, wherever you want to situate “heaven.” If you have read even a few of my blogs you know I think heaven is something that is more available to us now than we might normally suspect. So for me the key to what it means to love is not so much the ultimate peace of all humankind, the big dramatic events, but what is part of our lives right now. We can find that in today’s Gospel from Mark.

It may seem ironic that having just written off “big dramatic” events I’m turning to the feeding of 5,000 as a means for examining the idea of love. Let me explain. Too often the feeding of 5,000 gets bogged down in “did this really happen” questions? I think we need to remember it’s a story meant to carry a message of meaning for human life. What we have is a group of people that Jesus describes as “like sheep without a shepherd.” These people are lost, not geographically, but emotionally, maybe socially. These are people who are searching. They are looking to be “fed.” So this is about everyone who is trying to sort things out.

The disciples want to send them off to solve their own problems. Surely there are bigger, better resources in the towns and villages around than we have right here. Jesus, however, will not send them away. He says, “Give them some food yourselves.” And when the disciples object because doing something themselves will obviously cost them too much. Jesus asks, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see?” His disciples are forced to take an inventory of what they actually have to give. What they have doesn’t look like much. The story says, “Five loaves and two fish.” Anyone would know that isn’t enough to feed this huge crowd. Still, Jesus opens himself and the situation to the promise of the heavenly banquet and the disciples simply give what they have to the people. The result, “They all ate and were satisfied.” These 5,000 men not only found the nourishment they needed but had 12 baskets of leftovers as well.

I think a group of disciples gave of themselves to more people than they could have imagined and those people not only found what they needed but then had more to give as well. That’s what God does in this world. God loves and enables us by saying we have something to give. When we can open ourselves and pass it on by loving one another, there is abundance. So maybe even small efforts of love are big dramatic events after all.

Memorial, St. John Neumann

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings:

1 John 4:7-10, Psalm 72:1-4, 7-8, Mark 6:34-44

Our first reading from John’s letter is so strong we can hardly ignore its call for love. I suspect most people accept the idea that love is synonymous with God. It’s also important to remember that we have learned that because of Jesus who we believe was the actual expression of God in human life. I also like that John wants to draw a real connection between being a loving person and knowing God. The idea is that we should act as God acts and when we do there is a connection between us and God. John puts it this way: “Everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.” This is an example of how physical life and spiritual life are one thing and not separated. Today, however, I am thinking more about what it means to love.

Often when we think about God’s loving we can cast it in big dramatic terms like today’s Psalm: “Justice shall flower in his days, and profound peace, till the moon be no more.” These are descriptions of what Messianic times will bring. This is a description of heaven, if you will, wherever you want to situate “heaven.” If you have read even a few of my blogs you know I think heaven is something that is more available to us now than we might normally suspect. So for me the key to what it means to love is not so much the ultimate peace of all humankind but what is part of our lives right now. We can find that in today’s Gospel from Mark.

It may seem ironic that having just written off “big dramatic” events I’m turning to the feeding of 5,000 as a means for examining the idea of love. Let me explain. Too often the feeding of 5,000 gets bogged down in “did this really happen” questions? I think we need to remember it’s a story meant to carry a message of meaning for human life. What we have is a group of people that Jesus describes as “like sheep without a shepherd.” These people are lost, not geographically, but emotionally, maybe socially. These are people who are searching. They are looking to be “fed.” So this is about everyone who is trying to sort things out.

The disciples want to send them off to solve their own problems. Surely there are bigger, better resources in the towns and villages around than we have right here. Jesus, however, will not send them away. He says, “Give them some food yourselves.” And when the disciples object because doing something themselves will obviously cost them too much. Jesus asks, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see?” His disciples are forced to take an inventory of what they actually have to give. What they have doesn’t look like much. The story says, “Five loaves and two fish.” Anyone would know that isn’t enough to feed this huge crowd. Still, Jesus, opens himself and the situation to the promise of the heavenly banquet and the disciples simply give what they have to the people. The result, “They all ate and were satisfied.” These 5,000 men not only found the nourishment they needed but had 12 baskets of leftovers as well.

I think a group of disciples gave of themselves to more people than they could have imagined and those people not only found what they needed but then had more to give as well. That’s what God does in this world. God loves and enables us by saying we have something to give. When we can open ourselves and pass it on by loving one another, there is abundance. Maybe that’s a big dramatic event after all.