Judith Simonson challenges Christians to take notice
of the passages from scripture that we privilege over other passages. We do
this with the Bible just as some Christians treat the Koran.
On what bases do we prioritize the scriptures? How
ought we to engage in this privileging, given the sometimes contradictory
pronouncements from the word of God?
On this Sunday when we are still freshly celebrating
the Resurrection, we might explore what it would mean to give priority to what
liberates, what “makes new,” what welcomes and embraces, rather than to what
differentiates and judges. Peter challenges us to love, as does John’s Gospel: “love
one another as I have loved you.”
John 13:31-35
When it comes to picking and
choosing sacred texts, Christians hold their own in a world of diverse faiths.
It has become altogether too easy in recent years to point to difficult verses
in the Koran and lay blame for world events there. But we Christians are also
adept at pulling out isolated verses from the Bible to buttress our arguments
on current disagreements, while ignoring seemingly contradictory texts. . . .
I submit, here, that the main
contribution Christianity makes to the world of religion is to tell about God's
love for the undeserving as it was given flesh and blood in the story of Jesus.
Jesus' command that we love as he loved, continue[s] to make real that which
would otherwise be an abstraction. Jesus had to go away, but we are here. His
way of life as a demonstration of God's love is now to be our way of life. . .
.
[W]e in the churches are filling
the newspapers and airwaves with discussions of church polity, lifestyles,
hymnals, gender issues, popular religious figures and their downfalls, and
complaints that Christmas is becoming too commercial. At the same time, people
learn how the world works and come to the conclusion that God must have the
same value system. In our world, you are rewarded for what you do, respected
for what you have, and money will buy almost anything you want. Why shouldn't
people come to believe that heaven can be bought, too?
Jesus calls us to live in another
way entirely, demonstrating being God's way of being: loving without regard for
wealth or status, and willing to sacrifice for the good of the other. Our
motivation needs to be clear also, lest people think we are doing this to curry
favor with God. We care for others out of gratitude for what God has already
done for us. One advantage of being out of step with the world is that people
are more likely to ask why. – Judith E. Simonson
Acts 11:1-18
In Acts, God struggles to adjust
Peter's assumptions to the scope of God's mission, and a person Peter had
thought to be outside the bounds of salvation receives the Good News with joy.
What assumptions does God struggle to adjust in your congregation? What
eagerness for the gospel might you begin to see in those whom you are hesitant
to reach? – Taylor Burton-Edwards
It is extremely provocative to take into serious
consideration Peter’s teaching that “what God has made clean, you must not call
profane.” God makes clean all those who enter the baptismal waters. We are
drowned and brought back into life. We are utterly changed. But there are some
people in our world, in our communities, and in our neighborhoods and families
who are not recognized as the newly born baptized. This passage calls us to
ask: Who today is called “profane”? Who, then, must we stop maligning?
Revelation 21:1-6
In Revelation, God comes to dwell
among mortals on a new earth where, among other things, the undrinkable water
of the sea and human tears are made new and offered as the water of life to all
who thirst. How does your congregation “desalinize” the chaotic, pain-filled
waters around you and invite all to receive the water of life? – Taylor
Burton-Edwards
Judith Simonson is
an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Taylor
Burton-Edwards is the Director of Worship resources for the United
Methodist Church.
Homily Service 40, no. 6 (2007): 3-10.
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