One Girl In All The World.

So, last week I had some kind of technical difficulty (it might have been with my brain) and my blog post got written but not published.  O.o  I think I'll post-date it, so it will be searchable by when it was supposed to pop up in the lectionary.  And hey, maybe you'll enjoy reading it, even if it is late.

Into every generation, there is a chosen one. One girl in all the world. She alone will wield the strength and skill to stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness; To stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer.
~The Prophecy of the Slayer

Usually when I try to provide a pop culture illustration of what Roman occupied Israel was like I turn to the setting of Star Wars.  There are so many great parallels there, that I have to wonder if George Lucas didn't have the political realities of that time and place in the back of his head somewhere when he was creating that story.

What Star Wars doesn't have, however, is the powerful echo that the Jewish people must have been hearing when Rome conquered Israel.  To my knowledge, in Star Wars, the fall of Jedi Order was a new and shocking development with no historical precedent.  The Hebrew people had a historical precedent, though.  They had a national and religious catastrophe lurking the history that had to have every man, woman and child thinking "Oh no, not again."

They had Babylon.

I have yet to run across a story in popular culture that has the same political parallels for the Babylonian Exile that Star Wars has for Roman occupied Israel.

But when I think of the prophets of that time, Isaiah, Jeremiah... The all ahead full honesty of them.  The way they stood up to evil, even when it was being perpetrated by their own people.  For some reason, it keeps bringing Buffy the Vampire Slayer to mind.

Maybe it's because the prophets tend to be kind of brash personalities.  Maybe because, like Buffy's special Slayer powers, God's protection allowed them to mouth off against foes who would appear to hold all the cards and get away with it—all in the name of Good, of course.

But more than that, the scriptural focus for this Sunday—a passage from Jeremiah that speaks of God making a new Covenant with the Jewish exiles—reminds me of one the reasons that Buffy was the greatest Slayer of all time.

After all, she was always willing to do a new thing.

A lot of people feel that Buffy jumped the shark before the series ended, and I'll freely admit that the earlier seasons were probably better than the later ones, but I LOVE where it ended. I loved the theme of potentiality—all those girls who could potentially be the next one and only Slayer.  As one by one the potentials are taken out by a hellish evil, they remind me of the Jewish Exiles.  Broken.  Defeated.

Then there's the New Covenant:
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord:  I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And that, that reminds me of the new thing that Buffy orchestrated.  The moment when all that potential get's realized.  The moment that changes everything.  No more "One girl in all the world."  No.  Every potential slayer becomes a Slayer in full.

It's enough to make you feel like you can do anything, doesn't it?  Like there's something in your heart that cannot be denied?

Look into your heart.

Be good to each other,
Rev. Josh
031715


Jeremiah 31:31-34

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt — a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Psalm 51:1-12

Have mercy on me, O God,
  according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy
  blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
  and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,
  and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
  and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you are justified in your sentence
  and blameless when you pass judgment.

Indeed, I was born guilty,
  a sinner when my mother conceived me.

You desire truth in the inward being;
  therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
  wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;
  let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins,
  and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
  and put a new and right spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence,
  and do not take your holy spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
  and sustain in me a willing spirit

Hebrews 5:5-10

So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"; as he says also in another place, "You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek." In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

John 12:20-33

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

"Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say — 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

I Made a Promise, Mr Frodo. A Promise.

This was very nearly an entry about prophecy, despite the fact that the reading from Genesis that we find in the lectionary for Sunday isn't really a prophetic story.

I could wax poetic about how the word "prophecy" has been misunderstood and how therefore its very meaning has changed over the years.  But that will be a post for some other day.

No, the story of God and Abram forming their covenant with each other is more like the Council of Elrond than it is some obscure and obfuscated rhyming prediction of the future!

I don't know about you, but when I think of the Abrahamic covenant, what I tend to remember is God's promise:  do these things and I will make of you a great nation.

Similarly, when I think of the Council of Elrond, what I remember is Aragorn standing up and saying, "If by my life or death I can protect you, I will.  You have my sword."  Followed by Legolas and Gimli.  You can almost hear the sweeping music, can't you?

What you may not remember quite so clearly is the arguments concerning whether to use the One Ring or destroy it.  And then the more bitter arguments concerning who should carry the Ring into Mordor.

And perhaps you forget the part that was actually most important--Samwise bursting out of hiding and demanding to go along.  And the decision to include Merry and Pippin instead of more of Elrond's elves.

Because friendship and loyalty were deemed more important that strength.

And you know what?  That's not a bad description of what's actually going on between God and Abram.

It is a matter of friendship and loyalty.

Instead of bearing a Ring of Power, Abram and his wife Sarai bear being uprooted and settled in a strange land.  They bear circumcision--well, Abram and his male offspring do.  They even bear having their names changed to Abraham and Sarah.

Instead of arguing about what to do with the One Ring, or who is to do it, 100-year-old Abraham literally falls on his face and laughs when God tells him that his 90-year-old wife is about to become pregnant after experiencing barrenness all her life.

But in the end, this agreement, these promises, this covenant between Abraham and God are most like the Fellowship of the Ring in these ways:

Sometimes the people of God are like Boromir, too weak to keep our promises and sorry for it.
Sometimes the people of God are like Frodo, brave and diligent, plodding along even when our strength is failing.

But God?  God is like one Samwise Gamgee.  A loyal friend who is determined to walk beside us, no matter what we say.

All the way to Mordor, if that's what it takes.

Be good to each other,
Rev. Josh
022415





The scripture lessons for March 1st—The Second Sunday in Lent Year B—are:


Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous." Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him,

"As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.

"I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you."

God said to Abraham, "As for Sarah your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her."

Psalm 22:23-31

You who fear God,
   praise God!
All you offspring of Jacob,
   glorify God;
stand in awe of God,
   all you offspring of Israel!

For God did not despise or abhor
   the affliction of the afflicted;
God did not hide God's face from me,
   but heard when I cried to God.

From you comes my praise
   in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay
   before those who fear God.

The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
   those who seek God shall praise God.
May your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth
   shall remember and turn to God;
and all the families of the nations
   shall worship before God.

For dominion belongs to God,
   and God rules over the nations.

To God, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth
   bow down;
before God shall bow all
   who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for God.

Posterity will serve God;
   future generations will be told about God,
and proclaim God's deliverance
   to a people yet unborn,
saying that God has done it.

Romans 4:13-25

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") — in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become "the father of many nations," according to what was said, "So numerous shall your descendants be." He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith "was reckoned to him as righteousness."

Now the words, "it was reckoned to him," were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

Mark 8:31-38

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."