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04/23/2014

Textweek ATLAS links June 8, 2014, Day of Pentecost

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/pentecda.htm

DAY OF PENTECOST
June 8, 2014

       Dawn, Marva J., "Preaching Pentecost Texts: Will Holy Spirit Fire Inflame Again?" Journal for Preachers, 2002.
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“In a society that opposes us more subtly by means of constantly beckoning us into distractions that dissipate the flow of our river away from our focal concerns of loving God and our neighbor, can we let the Holy Spirit channel our water so that it remains alive and vital?”

       Fernandez, Eleazar S., "Finding a Home in the Belly of the Empire," Semeia, 2002.
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Abstract: “As the title suggests, this essay interprets Babel and Pentecost in relation to the U.S. context, especially as seen through the struggle and dreams of Asian North Americans for a colorful and just society. Through a postcolonial critique of the myth of the tower of Babel, which is a countermyth to the Enuma Elish (the dominant Mesopotamian myth), the master narrative and other hegemonic practices of white capitalist United States are exposed and decentered in an attempt to give space for Asian North American narrative. If the myth of the tower of Babel is about hegemony and its various expressions, the Pentecost event points to a different way of thinking, dwelling, and acting. Pentecost presents to us a vision of what it means to live together in a pluralistic United States and how to construe power and organize society. This essay ends with a challenge to "conspire" with the Spirit, the primary agent in the Pentecost event, in order to forge a colorful and just tomorrow.”

       Jagessar, Michael N., "Wind-Rush: Affirming Diversity; A Pentecost Reflection," Black Theology, 2004.
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“In our plurality, no matter how diverse and completely different we are from one another, the breath of our wind-rush God can empower us to 'breathe together' so that we can speak in our own 'tongue(s)' and understand each other. For, to speak the tongue or language that another uses demands of us deep listening in love.”

       Kershner, Shannon Johnson, "Outside the Walls,"Journal for Preachers, 2006. Sermon.
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“…a Pentecost church manages to hold enough trust in God's wild Spirit to believe that God is at work in the unfamiliar, in the chaos, outside the boundaries we impose, bringing new life and new hope to a world that sorely needs it. A Pentecost church believes God knows how to be God and rejoices that we get to be God's partner in spreading the word of grace and embrace and reconciliation that we know in Jesus Christ into all the world.”

       Willimon, William H., "'Everyone Whom the Lord our God Calls': Acts 2 and the Miracle of Pentecost Preaching in a Multicultural Context," Journal for Preachers, 2002.
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“Acts says we are right to see the multicultural composition of our congregations as a kind of test of the fidelity of our preaching. I think Acts would also tell us that, whenever by the grace of God our preaching overcomes some cultural boundary, we are right to rejoice that God continues to work wonders through the word. Whenever we hear "multicultural" we are supposed to think "church," that peculiar cross-cultural people gathered by nothing other than the descent of the Holy Spirit.”

       Derrett, J. Duncan M., "The Buddhist Dimension of John," Numen, 2004.
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Summary: “Many features of the Fourth Gospel have hitherto found no source and commentators are confined to imagination. Meanwhile Buddhists' use of Greek, Roman and Jewish materials is established. It turns out, from a close examination of twelve instances, that Buddhist traditions, found in Hïnayâna and Mahäyäna sources, contemporary in essence with St John, offered the latter an opportunity to make his gospel attractive to contemporary targets of Buddhist missions, groups for whom Moses was not a commanding figure. Buddhists would recognise Jesus, already known from "synoptic" or para-synoptic materials, as a Bodhisattva, now a Buddha, who like Gautama promised a Paraclete, strongly resembling Maitreya in character and function.”

 

       Hodges, Zane C., "Rivers of Living Water - John 7:37-39," Bibliotheca Sacra, 1979.
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“The purport of all this, if the Ezekiel passage is kept in mind, becomes plain. At the great climax of the Jewish festival year, the Son of God perceives the spiritual thirst of those whose hopes were wrapped up in a system of earthly ordinances and rituals. Standing up before them as the true Source of living water, He cries out for all to hear the gracious invitation to partake of the water of life from Him.  But this time He goes further than ever before in describing the consequences of accepting that gift. It was true that the believer in Him could never thirst again (6:35), that the believer would have always an exhaustless well of life within him (4:14). But more was true as well. When, in the last day that believer was raised to life according to Jesus' own solemn promise (6:39-40), he would then become — like the temple Ezekiel had foreseen in Scripture — an abundant source of living water in a world that God was remaking and would fill with His own supernatural blessing.”

       Rosencrans, Emily Duncan, "The Source of Our Strength," Journal for Preachers, 2003.
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“Since we are in a troubled time in our nation's history, I invite you to spend some time on your knees in prayer: pray for our leaders to have wisdom born of God; pray for our nation; pray for our people. Attend our Ash Wednesday service this Wednesday, which is focused on offering our sins to God, being self-reflective and going through a spiritual purification as we begin the season of Lent. If you know you have done wrong and have been passive about the wrongs in our world, if you know there are areas of your life where you tolerate the intolerable and accept the unacceptable, then get right with God. Do whatever it takes to make amends for your wrongs. We may yet avert God's anger if we become faithful as he is faithful.”

       Gipe, William, "Between Text & Sermon, Numbers 11:24-30," Interpretation, 2002.
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“From this passage, as well as the Pentecost story, it is clear that God works in ways that we sometimes do not understand—and surely cannot control. God often works outside human expectations, plans, and structures. The power to be a faithful Christian, a faithful leader, and a faithful church comes from outside of us, and that power will always have elements of mystery. Accepting this power into our lives involves risk. As God stretches us, challenges us, corrects us, and changes us and our way of life, we may want to say with Joshua, "Forbid this!" Does the church have the courage to say with Moses, "Would that this power flowed even more freely among God's people today?" The challenge for the church in its preaching and in all aspects of its life is to admit its need for, and to open itself anew to, this life-changing, life-giving power.”

       Patrick, James, "Insights from Cicero on Paul's Reasoning in 1 Corinthians 12-14: Love Sandwich or Five Course Meal?" Tyndale Bulletin, 2004.
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“The 'love chapter' in I Corinthians is usually thought to be a digression by Paul from his main argument about spiritual gifts. However, applying the tool of classical rhetoric to the passage reveals a previously unnoticed structure behind our chapter divisions. From the principles of good speech preparation (explained by Cicero in De Partitione Oratoria) Paul has arranged his discussion of spiritual gifts into the five standard parts: introduction, statement of facts with thesis statement, presentation of positive arguments, refutation of opponents ' views and conclusion. In this way one can identify the key summary statements, the skilful argumentation of Paul, the apparent views of his opponents, and the contextual function of chapter thirteen. This paper makes a thorough analysis of these chapters according to the theory in Cicero's handbook, summarised in a chart at the end.”

04/23/2014 at 02:46 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

04/19/2014

Textweek ATLAS links, June 1, 2014, Easter 7A - Ascension

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/eastera7.htm

EASTER 7A
June 1, 2014

Rogers, John B.," Following the Four Gospels into Eastertide," Journal for Preachers, 2013.
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"Commenting on Calvin’s catechetical instruction, Karl Barth wrote, “The ex- pression ‘right hand of God’ does not designate a place, but a function, that of God’s lieutenant, the sovereign’s minister. Christ holds in his hands the power of God. He governs in God’s name ... God’s power has become his. There is no divine almighti- ness without Jesus Christ."

Charles, Gary W., "Rider of the Clouds," Journal for Preachers, 2008. Sermon.
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"Ascension Sunday features the image of "Rider of the Clouds," hardly a serene image that we conjure up while gazing skyward. It is a military metaphor for a God who will not be defeated by the most advanced arsenal of evil - be they the gods of the Canaanites or the gods of our own devising. Isn't the Ascension a metaphor for the same thing?"

Lessing, Reed, "Broken Teeth, Bloody Baths, And Baby Bashing: Is There Any Place in the Church for Imprecatory Psalms?" Concordia Journal, 2006.
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"A war is going on, and it is a war of opposing powers with eternal consequences. In this war the baptized experience casualties, traitors, and triumphs. Our weapon is the "sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Eph. 6:17), and this weapon is not one of sweet passivity, but of life and death. It is a weapon that includes both "the kindness and the severity of God" (Rom. 11:22). In times of acute and ongoing distress we must invoke the severity of God as expressed in the imprecatory psalms."

McCann, J. Clinton, Jr., "Preaching the Psalms: Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35 (Ascension Sunday)," Journal for Preachers, 2008.
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"The "evil around us and within us" means that the faithful will always encounter opposition, as did Jesus and the apostles and prophets and psalmists. So, it is fitting that John Knox chose to conclude the Scots Confession with a prayer, which begins with Ps 68:1 and also reflects the content of vv. 32and35: "Arise, OLord, and let thine enemies be confounded; let them flee from they presence that hate thy godly name. Give thy servants strength to speak thy word with boldness, and let all nations cleave to the true knowledge of thee. Amen."The one who prays thusly will be properly positioned for praise, especially when praise is understood not only as a liturgical act, but also as a way of life in which we courageously conform our wills to the will of God, the "Father of orphans and protector of widows," who "gives the desolate a home to live in" and "leads out the prisoners to prosperity" (vv. 5-6)."

Dragas, George, "Martyrdom and Orthodoxy in the New Testament Era -- The Theme of MARTYRIA as Witness to the Truth," Greek Orthodox Theological Review, 1985.
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Abstract: "This article shows how, although the martyria group of words only has the meaning of martyrdom in the second century, the meaning "witness to the truth" in the New Testament texts is the necessary basis for this development and the context of opposition anticipates the later association of martyrdom with orthodoxy, especially when the New Testament context is often that of death. This had positive significance from the beginning and was not the result of a supposed delay in the Parousia. Previous studies have been restricted to the lexicographical development only."

Minear, Paul S., "John 17:1-11, Expository Article," Interpretation, 1978.
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"Initially I have selected four words which are in themselves quite ordinary but which in the Johannine vocabulary carry extraordinary cargoes. To help readers locate these terms, let me resort to the device of formulating riddles to be solved by using clues provided b) these verse-, or by contiguous sentences. Each cluster of queries can be answered by a single term or idea. Seek it out!."

04/19/2014 at 10:56 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

04/12/2014

Textweek ATLAS links, May 25, 2014 - Easter 6A

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/eastera6.htm

EASTER 6A
May 25, 2014

“To see things rightly, we must train ourselves to resist the glamour of novelty.”

“One promise of this passage for preachers and educators is that it can become both a model for engaging non-Christian forms of faith in the twenty-first century and an occasion for exploring the interplay between our theology of mission and our interpretation of the scriptures. One can begin with the assumption that Paul's encounter with the Athenians was an occasion of genuine religious dialogue, one that did not threaten Paul's faith but allowed him to express that faith in new and varied ways that hold promise for today.”

“By employing the language of reason and invitation rather than reproach, Luke and Paul offer to the church one model for proclamation in our own multicultural time. It is not the only model, to be sure, for sometimes the Gospel simply cannot be accommodated and must be proclaimed clearly and boldly, but in this instance Paul is able to employ the forms of Athenian religion and philosophy to describe the quest of people for God, and then to name the God who is the source and destination of that quest.”

"my concern is that we often preach Antioch sermons to Athenian people"

“First Peter's call to obedience and suffering has sometimes been sorely abused in the church's interpretation, turning a blind eye to violence against the oppressed. But this letter can also serve as a call to renounce violence, as did Christ himself, in a way that can transform evil into good.”

“Consideration of the Gattung of the Jewish Farewell Speeches shows that the Johannine discourse (apart from 13:lff.) belongs to this genre, which exercised its influence on other parts of the Gospel as well. Materially it is different; the standing features of the Jewish speeches are reworked completely. This is indicated by eight points of comparison. The Farewell Discourses happened to be replaced very soon by the Christian genre of the Speeches of the resurrected Lord. Still, they stand out as a remarkable theological achievement accomplished within a very short span of time.”

04/12/2014 at 04:46 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

04/05/2014

Textweek/ATLAS links May 18, 2014, Easter 5A

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/eastera5.htm

EASTER 5A
May 18, 2014

“Unlike today, the Hellenist Stephen aroused a great deal of curiosity in the minds of early Christian believers, and the literature produced about him during the late antique period is extensive. In addition to the Lukan narrative preserved in Acts 6-8, we can mention at least three different texts written in Greek: the martyrdom story (Passio); the story of the revelation of Stephen's relics to Lucían, a priest in the little town of Caphar Gamala (Revelatio); and the story of the translation of Stephen's relics from Jerusalem to Constantinople (Translatió) There are at least nine different recensions of the martyrdom and several different recensions of the Revelatio; the same can be said of the Translation.”

“Biblical writers present a grand vision of the priestly vocation, in which the sacramental life of worship is translated into an ethical mission to the world. It is a vision in which the priestly vocation of the ordained in the sanctuary and the priestly vocation of the laity in the world work in concert to fulfill the divine vision of a transformed earth.”

“American Christians are familiar with the concepts of fellowship and personal sacrifice. The confusion between Christian community and American society makes them less aware that this priesthood works only to the benefit of the community within the spiritual house.”

“I do not see how Christians can fail to confess— with all the qualifications I’ve stated— that there is salvation in no other name but Jesus.”

“Radical monotheism in theology often leads to radical exclusiveness in practice, whether it is Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. (Incidentally, Christian monotheism is not radical enough for Jewish and Muslim tastes.) In ancient Israel, exclusiveness served as a guard against idolatry, which is still a danger today. So long as Jesus' exclusiveness is directed against the real and present idolatries that beset American culture, John 14 will preach in Christian churches in a way that does not attack other faiths but does attack genuine threats to God's way, truth, and life.” 

“Today, when some layperson whines, ‘Why don't we have more great preachers,’ I tend to respond, ‘Because you ran off the good ones.’”

04/05/2014 at 02:18 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Textweek ATLAS Links May 1, 2014, Easter 4A

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/eastera4.htm

EASTER 4A
May 11, 2014

“This article argues that certain Old Testament and early Jewish references to a temple (usually a heavenly or sometimes a latter-day temple) have been formative for the depiction of the Spirit appearing as fire and for other associated features in Acts 2. The conclusion drawn from this is that the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost is a description of the inaugurated eschatological descent to earth of the heavenly temple.”

“Thus, an ordinary, common group of people had an extraordinary experience. In a common life, they gave expression to that experience and calling and became a very uncommon people. They became people who were more interested in service than status, more interested in opportunities than problems, more interested in preference than potential.”

Abstract: “Persistence in prayer is the key theme that runs throughout Luke and Acts. This theme is demonstrated by Jesus' actions throughout the gospel, is taught explicitly in one of the unique parables of Luke (the Persistent Widow), and is highlighted in the ways that Luke edits his gospel. In the book of Acts, this theme is demonstrated by the actions of Peter, Paul, and the early community of faith. Throughout Luke and Acts, persistence in prayer is not a matter of persuading a reluctant God, but rather it is a matter of disciples remaining faithful. In this interval between the "D-Day" of the cross and the "V-Day" of the parousia, not all our prayers are or can be answered. Persistence in prayer is how we remain faithful as we await the eschatological fulfillment of the gospel.”

“Admittedly pastors can learn from growing churches and successful ministries. Yet God's work must be done God's way if it is to know God's blessing.”

“The Psalmist also makes two points: 1) this life is sometimes delightful and sometimes hard; 2) though our circumstances change, the Lord does not. He is with us, his people, all the way through this life and after this life we shall dwell in his house forever. We could sum up the Psalm with the words ‘life after life.’”

“Psalm 23 speaks to the Christian about life s final passage, but it also speaks about other passages, passages which can be negotiated through the whole of life because help comes from the Divine Shepherd.”

“…the women addressed in the Petrine Haustafel deserve closer analysis; because the exhortations have received so much attention, the women themselves have rarely been discussed. As women negotiating problematic familial and social boundaries, they offer a valuable example of an ancient hermeneutic of resistance.”

“Both liberal feminists and conservative traditionalists often base their arguments on an unsupported assertion, namely, that if the biblical text is accepted as authoritative, then Peter's advice to abused slaves must be applied in a straightforward manner to abused women in the modern Western world. Yet, discussion of how to apply 1 Peter to modern abused women rarely addresses the specific social setting of Peter's audience. Thus, an extended analysis of the precise social context of 1 Peter is in order. In particular, we need to assess what, if anything lies behind the passive response Peter recommends to the particular abuse victims in his audience.”

“This is the life to which we are called—what it means to follow the good shepherd, to be part of his flock. To sometimes receive and sometimes give—to know not only in our minds but in our guts security in the face of danger, joy that crowds out sorrow, and love that overwhelms fear. It means being led along paths we would not choose for ourselves, to be prodded by the shepherd who knows our needs better than we know our own, to be blessed so thoroughly and so richly that we would not have even known how to ask for it.”

“Understood in terms of its historical-social context, the self-revelation of Jesus Christ, "I am the door," calls into existence and creates in this world an open-door community in opposition to closed-in communities. The community of Jesus Christ must be an open door to receive and welcome all sorts and conditions of people, just as Jesus received Samaritans, Pharisees, the woman of Samaria, the Roman centurion, Nicodemus, the man born blind, the palsied man, Peter, Thomas, and even Judas.”

“In order adequately to interpret Jesus the Broker in the Fourth Gospel, we need to consider these items in our model. (1) How do brokers become brokers? (2) What do they broker? (3) What makes for successful brokers? (4) What makes these brokers special or necessary? (5) What do brokers get for their services? About these concerns, the Fourth Gospel has much to say.”

04/05/2014 at 02:08 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

04/03/2014

Textweek ATLAS links May 4, 2014 - Easter 3A

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/eastera3.htm

EASTER 3A
May 4, 2014

“Prayer is not a way in which we order things; it is a way in which we become ordered. The primary action in prayer comes from God, and more often than not God does not act in ways that we can duplicate, often not even recognize at the time.”

“How is the Christian to react, armed with such hope, in this hostile world? Get to work at living out your faith! One could paraphrase 1:13 as "roll up the sleeves of your mind." One is not to retreat from the world and rest on grace as on a couch. One is to be up and at it. In technical terms, the indicative (declarative) verbs that have characterized 1:3-12 here give way to imperative (commanding) verbs in 1:13-21.”

The section on this text begins on page 436. “Truly, there is an ultimate accountability—every person and every nation comes before God for judgment, but also for love. In that accounting, none of the accouterments of life—status, wealth, talent, beauty, wisdom, strength, influence, power—have any meaning. The standard is love of God and love of humanity.”

“According to the Emmaus legend, . . . the Lord's Supper is the continuation of the saving events initiated by Jesus; 'Jesus' has become identical with the salvation-event and is present in the act of the common meal.”

“But we will lose sight of what Good News this all is if we can't place ourselves into the gloom of those Emmaus disciples as they walked away from the city of their anguish — knowing only that all their hopes were dashed — and thereby we can't behold the immense mystery and glory of Christ's resurrection and living presence. If we don't want a Messiah tortured and executed, as well as raised by the Father, we can't be truly delivered from ourselves and transformed by the Spirit into the same sort of self-sacrifice and willingness to suffer for the sake of others, especially those who still dwell in the darkness of despair and death.”

“Those of us in the church are quick to claim the eucharistic setting of discernment toward which this story points, and rightly so. But in our perception of reality, the Eucharist has become a practice that is too often limited to the private confines of the church, where it happens out of sight of the world. We need to remind ourselves that this meal, like the meals Jesus celebrated with the lost ones, the little ones, and the forgotten ones of this world, and like the meals shared by the communities of disciples in early Christianity, was a real meal, not merely a ritualistic symbol. The table of discernment toward which this story points is not the exclusive, homogenous table of most of our churches, but a table with real food shared among strangers.”

 

04/03/2014 at 01:18 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)