Faith and Grace Parish

03/15/2023

03/04/2023

Looking forward to seeing Pastor Corson as Archie Bunker!

02/17/2023

I was blessed go get see a pre-release version of this movie, “Jesus Revolution”. I would encourage everyone to see this inspiring movie. Tell your friends and family and spread the “Good News”!
Mike

12/03/2021

Welcome everyone to another scintillating ponderings with PJ. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Holiday. It was the first time in a long time that my family was able to spend Thanksgiving Day with my mom, so it was a great day for us. Here we are now heading into the second Sunday of Advent and speeding right along into the Christmas celebration. It is always amazing to me that the season that lifts-up the need to wait in hopeful expectation seems to speed along at such a fast pace. Here are the texts assigned for this Sunday – Malachi 3:1-4/Psalm is a reading from Luke 1:68-79 this week commonly known as the Canticle of Zechariah/Philippians 1:3-11/Luke 3:1-6

Just a couple of short observations for you to ponder this week.

Have you ever heard of the phrase “I am just the messenger don’t kill the messenger!?” Well, we all know what happens to the messengers, or as the Biblical witness calls them, “prophets” they eventually end up in the crosshairs of the power people. John was the messenger of the coming of the reign where all flesh shall see the salvation of God in Jesus. Think of folks who whistle blow on the government or abuses of power in the corporate world just in our own systems today and it comes into a clearer focus. And John the Baptist eventually got himself killed for his witness.

Malachi which is read as a contentious argument between the priests and God and the community – I like how Margaret Odell turns it around and says that it can also be read as a series of legitimate questions about how society and institutions and persons and all the relationships in those things have broken down. I will leave you with the question that she leaves us with just a few paragraphs into her commentary on this text. What does Malachi envision as a necessary first condition for being ready to meet God?

Just these two observations should be enough to keep us thinking down the road for a good while!

Blessed ponderings

11/12/2021

Welcome, one and all, to another day of Ponderings. Sorry I missed last week but the old sinus headache due to allergies and crop dust in the air finally did me in so here we are back at it this week. The assigned texts for this week, the 25th Sunday after the Pentecost, are Daniel 12:1-2/Psalm 16/Hebrews 10:11-14 [15-18] 19-25/Mark 13:1-8

I will focus the ponderings from today on the Mark text. The 13th chapter is commonly referred to by scholars as the little apocalypse and we are reading in worship this Sunday just the beginning of the chapter. Most scholars believe Mark was written in the early 70’s probably right after the destruction of the Temple but some still hang onto an earlier writing because of the Jewish Roman war 66-70. The initial audience of this writing would have been very aware of wars and rumors of war and if the early 70’s time-period is correct, they would also have been wondering about their God, and future, since the Romans just came in and utterly, destroyed the whole temple belief system in a crushing manner. It would be for us, similar to, an invading army coming into our secular system and just demolishing all of the capital buildings in all the states including the nation’s capital. We would be wondering after that, I am sure.

The text has the disciples admiring the great building of the temple in all its grandeur and splendor and then Jesus says it will all be thrown down. So, my first pondering for us and I think I might dwell on this for my sermon time this Sunday is what do we exalt. We exalt and put on pedestals many things and sometimes it is to our detriment, especially, if it becomes idolatrous. We would do well to take pondering time every now and then and become aware of those people, places, and things, that we idolize or exalt above Jesus.

Which gives rise to the second pondering – Amanda Brobst-Renaud states in her commentary on our text, “Whenever we hear reports of disaster, Mark 13 reminds us to not be led astray by messianic claimants that cannot save us; rather, we look for Jesus” The pondering for us then is, “who do we listen to?” The people, places, or things, that we have exalted above Jesus? We have pundits from all over the spectrum spinning all sorts of tales about all sorts of things and if we give them the ultimate authority, we just might be led down some rabbit holes we can’t get out of.

10/29/2021

This Sunday, we in the Lutheran tradition, lift-up the Reformation and Luther’s posting of the 95 theses on the Wittenberg Door. I imagine that “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” will be sung in some form in most of our Lutheran tradition churches. We are planning on singing it at the Faith and Grace Parish churches. Hopefully, this celebration has become less of an in-your-face day to our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters than unfortunately it has been used in the past and now more of a celebration of the recapturing of grace in our lives and the lives of our neighbors.
We have two options for texts this Sunday from the Revised Common Lectionary. The assigned texts can be Reformation Day texts and are always the same or from the 23rd Sunday after the Pentecost which allows for continued reading through Mark without skipping two weeks. In our bulletins for Faith and Grace we will be reading the Reformation Sunday Texts in worship. Here are the texts for those of you who want to read ahead:

Reformation Sunday – John 8:31-36/Romans 3:19-28/Psalm 46/Jeremiah 31:31-34
23rd Sunday after the Pentecost – Mark 12:28-34/Deuteronomy 6:1-9/Psalm 119:1-8/Hebrews 9:11-14

The Gospel of John focuses on the truth setting us free and the Gospel of Mark focuses on the Great Shema and Jesus adding and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. With all these different texts to pick on and not exactly knowing where to take them yet – I am planning on doing a piece on the Reformation and Luther and then probably combing the two somehow – it seems like it would be more appropriate for these ponderings to just give you a reformation thing that still has import for today for your pondering enjoyment or irritation. So, here we go.
Many of you may not know this but Luther posted 97 theses on the Wittenberg Door before he put up his 95 theses. He wrote them in Latin (the language of the scholars) hoping to get a theological debate going with the academics etc. at the University. They included arguments against scholastic theology, and communion practices etc. The academy at the time gave them a big yawn. The academy today might engage something like this more than it did back then, but the laity would still give it a big yawn for the most part, I am sure. So, I can just put myself in Luther’s shoes as he is thinking well, they don’t really care about the stuff I post up on the door and so he puts up the 95 theses attacking the indulgence and money system of the time – AND ALL HELL literally broke loose. Europe was basically devasted by warring factions after that until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
As much as things change some things don’t really change. Attack the money system today and see where it gets you. It has been said that if you want to know any of our congressmen or women’s position on most anything in the United States just find out who donates to their coffers, and you will know their voting positions on most everything. I had a college professor tell me one time that anywhere there is big money there is organized crime and corruption and I have found that to be true in my life experience ever since. Money has always talked in our particular-system, and it did in Luther’s time as well. I have always found it funny that the Reformation, which has some strong theological components to it through Luther’s writing, and then through the authors of the other articles in the book of concord which followed, isn’t really known that well, but the thing that really kicked it off was attacking the financing scheme of the church!

Blessed ponderings my friends

10/22/2021

Welcome once again to all the ponderers out in cyber land. This week’s assigned texts from the Revised Common Lectionary are Mark 10:46-52/Jeremiah 31:7-9/Psalm 126/Hebrews 7:23-28.
We have been reading through the Gospel of Mark and with Reformation an All-Saints Sundays coming up after this we will only encounter Mark again for one more Sunday and it is a reading from chapter 13. So, I will focus the ponderings today on Mark. It is also interesting that this last story from Mark chapter 10 does not come around that often in the lectionary because it usually falls on Reformation Sunday. I think it has been something like 19 years since this text was officially read in a Sunday service as part of the RCL assigned texts. Which is too bad since it is full of many exciting roads to wander on down. It is one of my all-time favorite stories in all the Gospels.
I would not have ever given the story of “Blind Bartimaeus” as much thought as I do except during a spirituality January term that I participated in at Wartburg Seminary the instructors used this story as a centering prayer time and then asked us to say what we would tell Jesus when he is standing right in front of us and asking what he can do for you. My answer surprised me somewhat and it has led to a continuing self-awareness around grief issues in my life. Since I will probably tell this story as part of a sermon this Sunday you will have to wait to hear the answer then – although some of you know.
This story caps off chapter 10 and I believe it is very intentionally set against the first two stories that come before it. Remember the chapter opens with some teaching about divorce from Jesus and then with the man asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life and he goes away empty because he thought he had it all covered, and Jesus said he lacked one thing. Sell all of it and follow me. Then we get James and John asking for the top spots at the table with Jesus in his glory and the other ten disciples of the inner circle get mad at them and Jesus uses it as a teaching moment to say that if you want to be first you must be servant of all. Also, Children get lifted-up and blessed a couple of times in the chapter. And then we get “Blind Bartimaeus.” So here are a just a few of the ponderings for you all out there to consider.
The text specifically says that Bartimaeus was the son of Timaeus. Who is this Timaeus, and should he not be taking care of his son or if he is no longer alive, did he give his inheritance to Bartimaeus and good ole Bart just blew it all like the young prodigal son in Luke chapter 15? The Greek generally says that Bartimaeus regained his sight so thinking this way just might be appropriate. He obviously had his sight at one time and lost it for whatever reason. Did Timaeus just kick Bart out because he was blind and was a blight on the family? I don’t know, but it is worth our pondering.
The name Timaeus is also used in one of Plato’s dialogues where he talks about it meaning how the world truly is – So as one of my colleagues on the ELCA clergy page put it, "The Timaeus was all about how to truly see the world as it presents itself and as it "ought to be" in the classic Platonic way. To say that the 'son of Timaeus' was blind, is in-itself a critique of that world view. To further claim that faith in Jesus, not in the Platonic philosophical constructs, was what gives him sight is a further dig at those who adhered to this philosophical worldview." I bet you never though you would be pondering Plato’s Dialogues for an upcoming Sunday text did you.
The man in the first story who Jesus asked to sell everything is in perfect juxtaposition to Bartimaeus because Bart threw off the only thing that had any meaning or use for him and that was his garment – which I am sure functioned as everything for him as he is outside the gate and sitting on the road. The “cloak” was everything from a shelter to get under and keep warm in to laying out in front of him to collect any alms that were thrown towards him. It was an important piece of material for him! The wealthy man could not get away from his many possessions, and Bart just let his one possession go in-order to regain his sight.
Bartimaeus seems to have faith in Jesus and his healing ability already because he calls out to him and calls him the son of David and to have mercy on him. So, the healing then it seems is just a confirmation of his faith to begin with.
There are many avenues to ponder with this potent story from the 10th chapter of Mark’s gospel witness, but I will leave you with just these written above, and they certainly are enough for now. If you all get the chance sit down and read chapter 10 again. It is my prayer that you will be taken down some pretty exciting roads with the living word of God.

10/15/2021

Hello all out there in cyber land. Time for another weekly ponderings with PJ. I hope these few thoughts for you to ponder will lead to the living word of God working in you this week. The texts for this week are Isaiah 53:4-12/Psalm 91:9-16/Hebrews 5:1-10/Mark 10:35-45

This week I am going to focus just on the Isaiah text assigned. As usual I have no idea yet where I want to go with a sermon (not that I do not have many avenues I have thought about) but for your pondering pleasure you get some thoughts on Isaiah. This is one of the suffering servant or servant song texts from what scholars generally consider 2nd Isaiah. Many folks may not realize that between the end of Isaiah chapter 39 and the well-known beginning of Chapter 40 “Comfort, O Comfort my people, says your God.” There is about a 200-year gap. Most scholars agree, me included, that Isaiah is composed of three different parts grafted together into one with the third part starting in chapter 56. Now with that very brief background lets look at our assigned text.
Lisa Wolfe in her commentary tells the kids sermon story about how the pastor was describing a squirrel with a bushy tail and then he asked the kids what he was describing. One young gentleman raised his hand and said, “Well it sounds like a squirrel but since this is church it must be Jesus.” I have used that story myself and you all might hear it sometime in the near future. I will be borrowing heavily from Lisa Wolfe’s commentary for these few ponderings.
We, on this side of the resurrection, have read Jesus back into the suffering servant. This is okay to do as-long-as we realize that Jesus was not born yet for some 500 years when these words were being put to scroll. Jesus was Jewish and this text would have been his bible so to speak. And I am sure he would and could identify with the suffering servant at times during his ministry here on the earth especially during the crucifixion. Many of the New Testament writers picked up on these suffering servant texts from Isaiah to put Jesus in context for their first century Christian communities who were all trying to make sense of it all.
This is part of the last servant song and describes an unnamed person who suffers from the deity for the redemption of Israel. Pretty much orthodox Christian atonement theory thought here. But what if we can take our Christian glasses off and read this text not only as Jesus would have read and thought about it but as the people during the Babylonia exile and subsequent return might have read and thought about it since they did not know Jesus and this writing would have been for them. This text was considered holy and separate enough to be put into the Jewish canon without the baggage of Christianity so what did it mean for those folks.
One pondering I have is that if the suffering servant was a metaphor for Israel, then, are there places today experiencing oppression that would fit into this description of silent suffering servant. And further-more does this lead to a theology of redemptive violence, which I, and many others, have thoroughly rejected as a viable theology. Walter Wink has written a series of books on this very issue. He thoroughly debunks the whole thinking that violence is or can be redemptive. But it does seem to be there and hinted at in this text. And this violence is from God.
If the suffering servant is not a metaphor for Israel and is an actual person of the time. Who might that person be? Your guess is as good as any out there. Whoever the person might be, the second pondering I have is this seems like the theology of the last scapegoat. There is a theology that some hold that Jesus was the last scapegoat for the sins of the many. This thinking comes from Leviticus and the day of atonement where they send the goat out into the desert carrying the sins of the community.
As we all know, there have been many last scapegoats since Jesus’ time. We might want to be very careful about who and what we might be scapegoating at any given time because it just might be God acting for us through the scapegoat. But then again, on the other side of things if that is the case, we need to be very careful not to encourage abuse because we think it might be of God. Just think about it for a moment. If someone has survived the trauma of an abusive situation hearing this text of suffering in silence for the redemption of a person or group probably is not all that helpful for them.

Well, there are sure some roads and rabbit holes we can ponder our way down after reading this text from Isaiah. Happy ponderings my friends!

10/08/2021

Hello to everyone out in cyber land connected to faith and grace parish! After an extended layoff from the ponderings with PJ I thought that it is high time to start the ponderings back up again. After going down hard with Covid 19 and recovering from that experience and then having the parsonage house burn to the ground the ponderings kind of took a back seat to other concerns. We are trying to get the web[age up and running back to normal again and are making significant progress but I have not yet figured out how to post this there yet so Facebook it is, but here we are ready to roll once again.

The texts for this upcoming Sunday in the RCL are Amos 5:6-7, 10-15/Psalm 90:12-17/Hebrews 4:12-16 and Mark 10:17-31

Boy am I glad that I am not preaching this Sunday because all of these texts are hard core for most of us to hear. Amos comes down real hard on those who take bribes, trample on the poor and levies them to death, pushing them outside the gate. God basically calls this an evil that we should hate. Ponderings for us then would be no matter what side of the political aisle we might sit on in our system do our policy leanings align with hating the evil that Amos lines up for us. I think that most of the time it does not. That is why the minor prophets are hard to read and so often get quoted by persons of faith who are engaged with the endeavors of justice as God through Amos is challenging us to hear.
I will leave the Hebrews text alone, but it is a clear example of the law/gospel dynamic. It is also the dwelling in the word text for us for the months of October and November so our councils etc. will be pondering this text a few times in the coming weeks.
What I really want to ponder with you is the Gospel text which does piggy-back off the Amos reading. So, it is also a hard text for us to read along in our mostly comfortable settings. I like what Luis Menedez Atuna says in his commentary about this being one of the most radical teachings we can find in the Gospels. We tend to use the word radical very narrowly in our culture and language of today. If I were to say the radical left or the radical right, you know I would be talking about the extremely extreme or overly biased part of the left or right. Luis Menendez reminds us that the word radical comes from the Latin and refers to the roots of a plant or a problem or the grounding assumptions of an argument.
So, what is the grounding argument or root in this text that we are dealing with? In Mark’s use of this story the man is anonymous. The other two synoptics give us just slightly more detail but not much. This man goes away after being told the one thing he lacks is to sell everything he owns and follow Jesus. He cannot do this because the text says that he had many possessions. If what we know about the wealth and cultural world of Mark is even remotely accurate, we can assume that this man owned much real estate and that also meant slaves and all that goes along with that issue in first century Palestine.
He would have to give up all that he identifies with as a wealthy person and become a nobody for the sake of the kingdom. A slave, if you will, for the sake of others. The Greek word that is used for the man’s response has many glosses for translation. He was shocked, surprised, in sorrow, bitter, sullen and many more. My interlinear translation has it translated as having become gloomy. We view this whole exchange as an emotional response but what if it is more radical as Luis Menendez suggests and also has more to do with a grounding in a moral disposition. That means this is a much harder thing for this man to deal with because it does involve his whole identity and being, and in the end, he is unwilling to do the work necessary to change his understanding of himself. In this way his belongings really did have control of him. And Jesus loved him – we cannot forget that part of the text either.

What has control of us most days? If we can start to decipher the answer to that question just maybe, we can become the people God intends us to be.

09/25/2021

The website provider for Faith and Grace Parish had a catastrophic failure and not only lost all of the Church websites they were hosting but also the backups failed. We have begun work to recreate the website but your patience will be appreciated. Thank you.