8 August 2010

Genesis 15:1-6
Psalm 33:12-22
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12:32-40

“How odd of God/To choose the Jews.” So goes a couplet by the late British Journalist William Norman Ewer. Though sometimes taken to be anti-Semitic, it does express a truth about God – that our God is indeed odd. Ewer could just as well have said, “How odd of God/To choose Abraham,” And while the sound of that goes nowhere, it is indeed terribly, terrifically odd for God to choose Abraham to be the ancestor of all people of faith. Just listen to the story.

1 August 2010

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
Psalm 49:1-11
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

Jesus rolls his eyes at the two siblings fighting over their inheritance. Yet. Another. Squabble. About . . . . . MONEY! “What do you want me to do about it and where does it ever end?” Jesus replies.

25 July 2010

Genesis 18:20-32
Psalm 138
Colossians 2:6-19
Luke 11:1-13

“Teach us to pray, Jesus, like John the Baptizer taught his followers to pray,” they asked. Not to put too fine a point on it but quite obviously, Jesus’ dear disciples are absolutely clueless as to what they’re asking for here. However it was that the Baptizer prayed – well, you judge – his head was served up on a platter. No, the disciples do not know what they’re asking, but not straying one bit from the Gospel narratives, we can safely assume what the disciples wanted was THE BIG SECRET to getting God to give us what we want – some way of getting God to be our personal Harry Potter house elf. Or as Janis Joplin sang it: “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz, my friends all have Porches, I must make amends. Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends; Oh Lord, won’t you buy me . . . .” But that just isn’t going to happen: this whole story is all about death and resurrection, is all about Jesus putting the disciples and their desires, along with the rest of us and our desires, decisively to death. “You want prayer?” asks Jesus. “Here, I’ll give you prayer – a few short words and a parable custom-designed to undo all your conventional ways of thinking and being.”