textweek

Luke 10:1-20 and Independence Day

Don't miss Dylan's Lectionary Blog, this week, where Sarah Dylan Breuer reminds us that the Twelve is a reconsitution of the twelve tribes of Israel, and that the Seventy can be seen as a parallel to the seventy elders appointed by Moses (Numbers 11) to be anointed with the spirit and assist in Moses' mission. Sarah writes:

"The wideness of God's mercy can be intimidating or even frightening to those who are accustomed to Mitzrayim, the narrow place. We may look back with longing to narrowness, and to comforting rules about who can and should prophesy."

Interesting words here for all, and maybe especially for us in the U.S., preaching on Independence Day, perhaps thinking about issues of prophecy, justice, freedom, mercy, etc, as individuals and as a nation.

From Paul Nuechterlein's Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary:

"Once again, I take issue with the omitting of verses. The woes on the Jewish towns, in the omitted verses 10:12-15, might be the whole point of this passage, with the sending out and return of the 70 forming an inclusion around it. Last week's story showed the disciples desiring a divine firestorm upon a Samaritan town and Jesus rebuking them. This week the omitted verses have Jesus telling his disciples that the time of judgment will actually be worse for Jewish towns than for Samaritan towns. I think this fits in well with the theme of my paper concerning the insider/outsider dynamic (see comments on last week's Gospel). Those who play the insider/outsider games will find themselves judged by them. In other words, they eventually bring judgment on themselves. There is even the sense of a special responsibility borne by God's chosen people "because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God" (below, Luke 19:44)."

Whether we consider ourselves to think/act within liberal or conservative models, theologically and/or socially/politically, it seems helpful to consider the responsibility that goes along with understandings that we are somehow "blessed" or "chosen" (or even recipients of grace!). What exactly is our responsibility, when we consider ourselves to be "called" to mission? To evangelism? To social action? What is our responsibility - REALLY, not just rhetorically - as receipients of grace? These are more difficult issues, I think, in reality than they are in rhetoric. From the pulpit, whether we are liberal or conservative, they preach fairly well and fairly easily. But really meditating on them from within an understanding of radical grace and radical freedom, within the realities of our current communities - from families to churches to nations - can be more difficult. These issues, maybe, are fairly easy in the abstract - and in our rhetoric for ourselves and against others - but in our own day to day life, it's a whole lot more complex. How do we give others an opportunity to think through these issues with complexity instead of preaching platitudes? It seems to me that this is part of the purpose of these passages (and perhaps the gospel of Luke) in the first place.

Lindy Black has listed some interesting quotations about pride, at Sermon Nuggets. Pride and humiility seem to be part of the issue in these chapters of Luke. (We go from this section on mission to the story of the Good Samaritan in next week's gospel, and in the next story in the narrative of Luke.) These, also, are complex issues. In the abstract, it's easy to say, "Pride bad. Humility good," and then to go on to list the ways that we have humility and "they" have pride - the harmful kind. If we have pride, it's the good kind. Or, we DID have the bad kind, but Christ has given us the good kind. Again, I wonder what it means to engage in a more complex analysis of some of this - whether we are liberal or conservative - so that it makes a concrete difference in our own lives and in the lives of others. I wonder what actually doing this, instead of just saying it, would mean for us as individuals and communities, in terms of, perhaps an Exodus of our own - toward, as Paul might say, enslavement only to God. What would that even mean , in real life, for us to be completely dependent only on God, and completely free within that dependence alone? Or have we - whether we consider ourselves conservative or liberal - already made that journey, and is the Exodus - as a nation or as individuals - in our own past, as it has been considered in the past by so many folks throughout history? How do we live within a reality that the Exodus lived by Moses and by Jesus is also the Exodus to which WE are called - as we leave the "narrow places" of the Egypts and the power of sin and oppression in which WE live, and head off into radical freedom, salvation, and total dependence on God?

Race, Class and Art

At NPR: "Casta Paintings: Inventing Race Through Art,"

"The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is hosting the first-ever major exhibition paintings that reflect what many upper-class Spaniards thought about race, class and skin color during the 1700s, when Mexico was a colony of Spain."

This program is being broadcast on the Tavis Smiley Show today. You can read the article now, and the internet audio program will be available at about 1 PM, Eastern.

How is art related to culture? In what ways are theological/religious beliefs - even revelations - related to art/culture? And what does all of this have to do with evangelism, prophecy, and the gospel text for Proper 9C - especially as it leads in to next week's gospel text?

WYSO Concert

The World Youth Symphony Orchestra will perform its first concert of the season at Interlochen, at 8:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday, June 27, under the direction of Jung Ho Pak. You can listen to the concert live on Interlochen Public Radio. My daughter, Jaie Woodard, will be in the back row of the orchestra playing assistant principal horn, and her mother is very proud!

BBC Radio 4 - "In the Footsteps of Muhammad"

Available to listen/read online - BBC Radio 4's "In the Footsteps of Muhammad:"

"In a major new series In the Footsteps of Muhammad Edward Stourton traces the roots of Islam and its prophet Muhammad, the mystic and warrior at the heart of this vast faith movement."

'Song of Songs' Written by a Woman?

"The Passionate Woman Who Wrote 'Song of Songs'," Interview with Dr. Renita J. Weems, by Wendy Schuman, at Beliefnet:

"Bible scholar Renita Weems talks about the origin of the only book in the Bible that's secular and told in a woman's voice."

Religion in Iraq

At PBS "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly" - "Religion's Role in the New Iraq:">"Michael Young, who chairs the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, discusses the role of religion in a sovereign Iraq with correspondent Kim Lawton."

Meditations on Stained Glass Art

A number of meditations on Stained Glass Art, from the exhibit "Images in Reflection: A Collaboration of Art and Prayer," on view at the American Bible Society in New York, at Beliefnet: Begin at "Intersecting Lines of Redemption," by Hondi Duncan Brasco, and follow the links:

"Today's stained glass windows let in the light of many faiths. View a gallery of glass artist Ellen Miret's crosses, Buddhas, angels, goddesses, and more."

Justice and Hope

From Jim Wallis, "Building Global Justice: We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For," Sojourner's:

"More than just a moral issue; hope is a spiritual and even religious choice. Hope is not a feeling; it is a decision. And the decision for hope is based upon what you believe at the deepest levels - what your most basic convictions are about the world and what the future holds - all based upon your faith. You choose hope, not as a naïve wish, but as a choice, with your eyes wide open to the reality of the world - just like the cynics who have not made the decision for hope."

What It Means to Be Modern

From a Book Review by Margot Patterson, National Catholic Reporter, of Al Qaeda and What It Means to Be Modern by John Gray:

"It is the fact that radical Islam rejects reason that shows it is a modern movement," Gray writes. He notes that the medieval age was convinced of the power of reason; it was the Romantics who embraced the idea of remaking the world through an act of will.

"The intellectual roots of radical Islam are in the European Counter-Enlightenment," Gray writes. He adds: "The belief that terror can remake the world is not a result of any kind of scientific inquiry. It is faith pure and simple. No less incontrovertibly, the faith is uniquely Western."

Ironically, if Al Qaeda is representative of the very modernity it protests, Gray sees Westerners' faith in historical progress as a residue of the Christianity they largely dismiss. Western secular societies have joined Christianity's conception of history as linear to their faith in science as salvation.

"The prevailing idea of what it means to be modern is a post-Christian myth," Gray writes. "The Positivists inherited the Christian view of history, but -- suppressing Christianity's saving insight that human nature is ineradicably flawed -- they announced that by the use of technology humanity could make a new world."

100 Spiritually Significant Films

Ron Reed of Christianity Today reports on "Movies Every Christian Should See": "The folks at Arts & Faith, an online discussion group comprised of film critics—including Christianity Today Movies critics Jeffrey Overstreet, Peter T. Chattaway and myself—and other movie buffs have been carrying on a lively conversation about spirituality and film for years. Recently, the participants forged a terrifically diverse and intriguing list of 100 Spiritually Significant Films—an incomparable resource for anyone interested in exploring transcendent themes in the movies."