Threads from Henry's Web

Category: General

  • When Two Screens Just Aren’t Enough

    When Two Screens Just Aren’t Enough

    Ya gotta have that iPad!

  • Is that Idiom Right?

    We all use idioms, mostly unconsciously. There are a number that bother me that are in common usage, such as “I could care less” which developed from the more logical “I couldn’t care less.” But idioms often aren’t about logic. They’re about what people actually say, and what other people understand by what they say.

    There’s a great article on this from a few weeks ago on Lingua Franca. Enjoy!

  • Proper B20 – Gutting another Passage

    There are times when I understand why we select verses to read in the Lectionary, and there are times when I don’t. In this case, I don’t. We have James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a. I don’t see adequate reason not to read 3:13 – 4:10 as a whole, and if I were to preach/teach on this passage I would definitely include the other texts. I do appreciate the inclusion of the buildup (3:13-18) which tells us the importance of 4:1-10.

    This isn’t too long to read as a whole. Verses 4-6 provide additional understanding as to why these conflicts take place and what to do about them. Version 8b-10 tell us something about how to get away from the problem.

  • Kitten vs Doberman

    Enjoy!

     

  • Another Gutted Reading – Psalm 89

    I’m looking at the readings for Proper 25A, and again I notice a large chunk of the Psalm removed from the reading, Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17, so 7-12 is left out.

    Now sometimes I see good reason for taking part of a Psalm, because one does need to keep the readings reasonable in length. As it is, many congregations only use a few lines from the Psalm.

    But in this case, one could divide the Psalm into three sections, with the first being 1-6, expressing the greatness of God, the second 7-12 talking about living under God’s judgment or anger, and 13-17 being a prayer for God’s favor. Now if you leave out the center part of the Psalm, one misses the sense of the prayer.

    In this case I suspect a desire of certain liturgists to avoid reading the really unpleasant verses, such as speaking of God putting our sins directly in front of him. Not comfortable reading, that!

    In any case, I think this Psalm, as most Psalms, should be studied more as a whole, rather than chopped up. As worshipers, we should be more patient with hearing the reading of the Word.

  • Comparing a Three and Four Year Lectionary

    Will Humes, a Methodist pastor in Pennsylvania, is proposing a four year lectionary. Two major benefits he sees for this lectionary is that it would give the gospel of John a bigger place in the lectionary, and also inclusion of more wisdom literature. I have already briefly commented on this. What I’m planning to do here is compare the two lectionaries for the next few weeks to see what preaching/teaching from them might be like.

    I am not currently preaching anywhere, but I do use the lectionary in my devotional study and frequently use it in teaching. When I am invited to preach I normally preach from the lectionary texts. Because of the extra year I’m going to compare three sets of texts: 1) The RCL texts for the coming week, 2) The texts from the same year/gospel from the proposed four year lectionary, and 3) the texts we would use if this was the year for the gospel of John.

    For this coming Sunday, August 21, that would be Proper 16A, Week 16A to match, and 16D for John.

    Here are the texts:

     

    RCL 4Y-A 4Y-D
    Old Testament Exodus 1:10-2:8 or
    Isaiah 51:1-6    		 Genesis 38:1-26 or
    Isaiah 40:21-31    		 Genesis 8:1-13 or
    Acts 26:1, 9-23, 27-29, 31-32
    Psalm Psalm 124 or
    Psalm 138    		 Psalm 18:31-36, 43-50 Psalm 132:1-5, 11-18
    Epistle Romans 12:1-8 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 Revelation 3:14-22
    Gospel Matthew 16:13-20 Matthew 12:1-21 John 8:31-47

    If we were in Year A of the four year series we would have our choice between the rather risque story in Genesis 38 (Judah and Tamar) and the lofty language of Isaiah 40. In the epistle, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 has a remarkably similar (though of course not identical) message to Romans 12:1-8. Obviously that’s not the issue, but I found it interesting! The gospel contains a collection.

    If we were in Year D, we’d have the story of the exit from the ark after the flood, material on the Davidic covenant and God’s faithfulness from Psalm 132, the letter to the church in Laodicea, and a passage from John about whose children Jesus’ opponents really are.

    I find it about equally difficult to create a good overarching theme for these passages and for those in the RCL. Sometimes there’s an intentional theme, and sometimes there’s not, but that’s nothing new.

    I like the inclusion of passages that are not part of the normal lectionary readings. I wonder how many churches would actually read Genesis 38. I can’t recall anyone actually preaching from it!

    In any case, I enjoyed the comparison. I hope to write a bit more on these passages as the week goes on, but it’s a busy week, and I may not get around to it. I will certainly compare a few more weeks of passages to help you get a flavor for this idea.

  • Notes Elsewhere on Advent 2C

    I have written a couple of articles this week for my Participatory Bible Study Blog that relate to the week’s lectionary passages.

    1)  Translating Philippians 1:9-11 comparing three translations of the passage and discussing the difficulties of getting a clear English rendering

    and

    2) The Mosaic Bible and the Lectionary – Update discussing the use of The Mosaic Bible (NLT) from Tyndale House in connection with the lectionary.

  • All Saints Day – Cycle B

    Believe it or not, I do regularly read the weekly lectionary passages.  Finding time to write about them is another matter.  This week I’m going to start by providng some links to previous discussions of lectionary passages.

    First, I have a write-up on Isaiah 26 which discusses the structure of the entire chapter.  I think it’s worthwhile to look at passages in context, especially here.  In this case, John the Revelator uses material from the Isaiah passage in our New Testament epistle reading, Revelation 21:1-6a.  I use a series of scenes to illuminate the structure of Revelation in my study guide, and you can find an outline of these combined with my draft translation.  Reading the two side by side, and then expanding the context of the Isaiah passage by reading the whole chapter will give you some insight into the use of the Old Testament in the New.

    Later in the week I hope to post some audio of my previous teaching on the gospel of John.

     

     

  • Getting Seriously Committed (Pr 16B – Gospel)

    The gospel for this week comes again from John 6:56-69.  We have five of these in a row.  John 6 is an interesting chapter because in it Jesus drives to the heart of his message in speaking especially to his disciples, and many of them can’t handle it.  They leave.

    I have discussed the gritty, earthy metaphors Jesus is using.  Certainly the way he expresses these truths will get under the skin of many people.  But it’s not just the gritty metaphors that are getting on peoples’ nerves.  It’s what those metaphors point to as well.

    “You are what you eat,” is a common saying.  Many of us are very careful what we eat, and even what we put in our mouths.  We’re touchy about it.  Why?  Well, some of us are aware of health issues.  Some just have certain very specific tastes.  But in general, sending something inside your body just sounds a bit dangerous, so most of us are pretty careful about it.

    When Jesus uses eating metaphors to discuss our relationship to him, he is making it clear that this isn’t something that we take up part of the time.  It isn’t something that we pay attention to occasionally.  It is something that becomes a permanent part of us.  It is something that changes us and makes us something different.

    We frequently talk about the presence of Jesus at the Eucharist.  But an important point to remember is that when we eat that bread and drink from the cup, we are also symbolically living John 6.  If Jesus is present, and I believe he is, then we take Jesus into ourselves.  We shouldn’t do that casually or without fully intending to put it into practice, by surrender.

    John 6 gives us the confrontation, and then the reaction of each group.  The question of total commitment is the real dividing point in Christianity.

  • Letting Wisdom Define Fear of the Lord

    Ref:  Psalm 111:10 – Proper 15B

    The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

    Those who practice it have good inteligence.

    We’ve all heard that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, as stated in this passage and many others.  It’s a pretty basic Christian concept.

    A few days ago, I wrote about the fear of the Lord and how I believe it is not only reverence and awe, but includes an element of fear.  There is a good reason to be concerned with the concept of being afraid of God.  There is definitely an ungdoly fear.  But it’s quite easy to dismiss a very real, justified and salutory fear at the same time as we dismiss what is ungodly.

    Let me use an example from baseball.  A couple of years back my wife and I were attending a game with our local Pensacola Pelicans, an unaffiliated minor league team.  It was during a minor league umpire strike and the replacements were not so good.  The umpire behind the plate that night had grave difficulties telling a ball from a strike.

    Now let me make clear that this wasn’t the normal complaint of the umpire ruling against the home team.  There was no bias.  He didn’t make it any easier on the visitors than on the visiting team.  The problem was that he was horribly inconsistent, and his inconsistency drove both teams nuts.

    Normally there are several types of fear a pitcher might feel during a game.  He might be afraid of failing to control the ball.  He might be afraid of getting taken out of the game early.  But the only fear he should have of the umpire is a fear of doing things that are out of bounds–intentionally hitting a batter, or arguing inappropriately with the umpire.

    In the game I observed, there was a fear with each pitch–that the umpire might call an obvious ball a strike or a perfect pitch right down the center might be called a ball.  It was a confusing sort of fear and both teams reacted badly to it.  You know there’s trouble when half of each team is standing outside the dugout and they’re all yelling at the umpire–over the same call.

    There is a quality of fear of the Lord that is quite appropriate.  It’s the realization that God is powerful beyond our comprehension (who can comprehend omnipotence?) and that if we go out of bounds there will be consequences.  It is much unlike the fear I just described, or the fear of a crazed wild animal.  In those cases it’s a terror that leaves us unable to choose a course of action.

    “There is no fear in love,” John tells us (1 John 4:18).  He tells us this in the context of judgment.  When must you fear judgment?  When you are guilty and are likely to be convicted.  It goes past the topic of this post, but this is a simple statement of grace.  Perfect love is that which Jesus showed when he died for us.  Perfect love, love perfected in us, is the realization that we need not fear the judgment because of God’s grace.

    I think the distinction is also made in our verse today.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  How do we tell what is a proper fear of the Lord?  Well, the fact that it is the beginning of wisdom!  Though I don’t recall the specific reference, Paul Tillich says in his Systematic Theology that both the divine and the demonic shatter us mortals.  The difference is that the divine puts us back together again better than before, whereas the demonic leaves us shattered.

    The fear of God may be overwhelming, but it leads to order and wisdom.  The fear that is cast out by love is a terror of what is wrong, and that which does not build up.