Proper 7C - (June 20, 2010)

[Jon Twitchell]

• First reading and Psalm
  • 1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a
  • Psalm 42 and 43
• Alternate First reading and Psalm
  • Isaiah 65:1-9
  • Psalm 22:19-28
• Second reading
  • Galatians 3:23-29
• Gospel
  • Luke 8:26-39

[Jon Twitchell]

Where will you be preaching this week? It's Father's Day in the US.

I'm working on a Galatians series, and this is a great text about Christ breaking down all of the barriers--racial, social, economic, etc--in order that we all might be considered ONE in Christ. Every week is a good week to celebrate Holy Communion, but this week will be a natural fit for us to gather around the Table.

[Jeremy D. Scott]

I've done pretty well in the last couple of years of taming my book-lust, but this newer commentary set that follows the RCL, Feasting on the Word, is calling my name. They have samples of these current weeks on the site. Here is this week's (just on the Isaiah passage, opens in .pdf). Barbara Brown Taylor, who may very well be my favorite preacher to listen to, edits the series along with David L. Bartlett. The general format includes reflections from four perspectives: theological, pastoral, exegetical, and homiletical.

[Jim Abrams]

It's early yet but I think I want to tie this idea about being Abraham's offspring to the idea that if we are in Christ than we do have a Father. I was able to secure a copy of Dr. Dennis Kinlaw's PALCON message from May 2010 (at a ridiculous price of $10). He does some really great things with Moses and the burning bush from Exod. 3. He talks about a holy God who speaks our name, who knows us personalty. A God who is so concerned with the plight of his children that he sends Moses saying, "Go get my Son from Pharaoh." Kinlaw also uses Ezek. 16:4-16 to speak of the kind of Father God is. I want my people to fall in love with this kind of God. I don't know how it will come together. I have difficulty connecting these seemingly unrelated scriptures as well as Kinlaw does. I struggle with weather I should even address the issue of Father's Day. But I want my people to fall in love with the God depicted in Exod. 3 and Ezk. 16 because if we are in Christ don't we have a dad like that? If we do, shouldn't we celebrate him? How fortunate are we? How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be the Children of God? Anyway, that's were I am in my sermon prep today.

[Shea Zellweger]

I've been asked to fill in at a church, and have decided to go the Father's Day route.

[Kazimiera Fraley]

I am also in Galatians. Some early thoughts. Really RAW thoughts - kind of just what is coming to mind
The law as the disciplinarian - the one who watched over and took care of the children - the nanny or governess. Then when in the fullness of time Christ came and we are released from the tutorlage of the nanny/governess/diciplinarian into a live of Grace through faith in Christ. I struggle with this idea - how does this not complete negate the law, and the lives of those who lived under the law. Yet, we are STILL not living in the fullness of the law. We are in the "already not yet." In some ways we are just in a different "already, not yet" than they were. They were in a time when the God was reveled in the Law but had not been reveled in Christ. Now we are between the coming of Christ the full redemption of all creation. Between the first and the second coming. We have been released from the tutorlage of the governess but we are not yet full grown adults. We are brides to be, we are not wives. We are waiting for the bridegroom to return. So, the grace we are afforded in Christ no more negates the lives of those who lived their lives under the law (prior to Christ's incarnation) than our lives now will be negated when Christ comes in fullness and all things are set right, when we become the bride of the groom who has come. In way then the law was a grace in its time which was replaced by a fuller grace found in the person of Jesus Christ which will be made complete with the second coming, the redemption of creation, the setting of things right when the groom will come back to great his "grown/adult" bride and we will be ushered into the great wedding feast. - I think those thoughts take me way off of Galatians -
The freeing of Us from our governess/diciplinarian (the Chruch the bride of Christ, the "Sons" of God brings us into a deeper unity than we ever experienced under the law, we are brought together, the lines are erased, the walls are torn down, there is no slave, nor one who is over the slave, there is no male, no female, no Gentile, no Jew - we are united all First born sons, heirs - we are The Bride united in Christ being made ready and prepared. We take on a newness just as a baptismal canidate rids herself of her clothes and enters the waters of baptism to be born again exits to be clothed in newness; clothed in the personhood of Jesus Christ, made over in Christ image, becomes a member of the Body and begins the journey of becoming the Bride - in all its glorious mixing of metaphors!!!! ( )

[Jon Twitchell]

The introductory image that I will use will be the tune "One of these things is not like the other..." You might remember it from Sesame Street. From there I'll talk about our innate desire to sort, categorize, name, and label things... something that start doing as children, and do throughout life. Entire branches of science have been devoted to this need to categorize and label everything under the sun.

But the Kingdom of God calls us to something different--at least when it comes to humans. We're not to sort, categorize, or label each other... ultimately because it dehumanizes us. Whether it's simple high school labels (jocks, geeks, goths, rich, in, out)... or the more complex racial and ethnic labels that we tend to use as adults. The reality is that when we label someone, we reduce them from the person... created in the Image of God... we reduce them to a stereotype... a label... a category.

From there I'll move into the text, and discuss the barriers that are eliminated in Christ... and ultimately move to the image of unity in the Body of Christ that Dr. Benefiel gave at ENC PALCON: that even as the wheat and grapes are gathered together, ground down, and made indistinguishable from one another in the communion wafer and the cup... when we come to the table, we forsake our individual identities... our separateness... to be caught up as part of the Body of Christ.

[Susan Unger]

I'm working on a Galatians series, and this is a great text about Christ breaking down all of the barriers--racial, social, economic, etc--in order that we all might be considered ONE in Christ. Every week is a good week to celebrate Holy Communion, but this week will be a natural fit for us to gather around the Table.

I went to an Anglican Church in Bermuda last week. I found the sermon [which follows your post here] to be very helpful as I try to minister to people. People see our human boundaries and believe that should divide us. I have been trying to convince one person in particular that human boundaries are not God's boundaries and so the sermon encouraged me to keep praying and working on the person. Then tonight, as I was coming home from the store, my mind started wondering again if I would ever get this across to others or if I am just the crazy one. God reminded me of last week's sermon. Then I got on here and saw your post. I needed that

[Marsha Lynn]

Thanks for this, Jon. I would be starting with the Barefoot Ministries Sunday School lessons tied to the RCL cycle this week except that Father's and Mother's Days trump Sunday School here. I will be teaching the teen class so my husband can go to the Father's Day Brunch.

I'm looking forward to the weeks ahead and expect this forum to be a valuable resource.

The introductory image that I will use will be the tune "One of these things is not like the other..." You might remember it from Sesame Street. From there I'll talk about our innate desire to sort, categorize, name, and label things... something that start doing as children, and do throughout life. Entire branches of science have been devoted to this need to categorize and label everything under the sun.

But the Kingdom of God calls us to something different--at least when it comes to humans. We're not to sort, categorize, or label each other... ultimately because it dehumanizes us. Whether it's simple high school labels (jocks, geeks, goths, rich, in, out)... or the more complex racial and ethnic labels that we tend to use as adults. The reality is that when we label someone, we reduce them from the person... created in the Image of God... we reduce them to a stereotype... a label... a category.

From there I'll move into the text, and discuss the barriers that are eliminated in Christ... and ultimately move to the image of unity in the Body of Christ that Dr. Benefiel gave at ENC PALCON: that even as the wheat and grapes are gathered together, ground down, and made indistinguishable from one another in the communion wafer and the cup... when we come to the table, we forsake our individual identities... our separateness... to be caught up as part of the Body of Christ.

[Jon Twitchell]

Thanks for this, Jon. I would be starting with the Barefoot Ministries Sunday School lessons tied to the RCL cycle this week except that Father's and Mother's Days trump Sunday School here. I will be teaching the teen class so my husband can go to the Father's Day Brunch.

I'm looking forward to the weeks ahead and expect this forum to be a valuable resource.

Marsha,

Glad you'll be joining us. I'm also using the lectionary-based resources from BM... my teens get a double-whammy... but I tend to go in a slightly different direction in SS then in AM Worship... and besides, I figure the double-whammy can't hurt!