Same Old Song

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Episode 16: Episode 16: He Comes To The Desert Alone Mar 02, 2017

Show notes

<p>In this episode we discuss the Lectionary texts for the first Sunday in Lent: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7, Romans 5:12-19 and Matthew 4:1-11.</p>

Episode 15: Episode 15: Mountains & Myths Feb 21, 2017

Show notes

<p>This week we reflect on the readings for this week in year A, which is the eighth and last Sunday in Epiphany: Exodus 24:12-18, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Matthew 17:1-9.</p>

Show Notes:

All these themes—appearance of the glory, divine condescension, building of a tabernacle—return in the tale of the transfiguration, a set of parallels not lost on the fathers of the church. Indeed, the Greek Fathers were fond of drawing parallels between this epiphany of the incarnate Son and its important forerunner in the Old Testament. What Brevard Childs, in his Exodus, wrote in summary of chapter 24 could just as easily be transferred to the moment of the transfiguration: “But in light of God’s complete otherness [which occasioned all the concern for purity of body and character—GAA], the all-encompassing focus of the chapter falls on God’s mercy and gracious condescension. It is this theme which lies at the heart of the witness of the Sinai Covenant.”
-Gary A. Anderson

It is clear, in any case, that in these verses 2 Peter is addressing both the power and danger of biblical texts. Modern Christians know both well. Biblical texts often speak to us with all the wonder and clarity of the morning star rising in our hearts. These same texts divide us from one another. As we well know, we often choose who will be in or out of a community by how they read or do not read certain texts. 2 Peter witnesses to both. It includes as aggressive an attack on Christian opponents as we have in the New Testament. And it includes a series of wonderful and gentle images of the Christian life. The Bible is a powerful and dangerous text.
-Lewis R. Donelson

These connections also shed new light on the meaning of the fundamental claim of the prologue to John’s Gospel, where the Evangelist sums up the mystery of Jesus: “And the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us” (Jn 1:14). Indeed, the Lord has pitched the tent of his body among us and has thus inaugurated the messianic age. Following this line of thought, Gregory of Nyssa reflected on the connection between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Incarnation in a magnificent text. He says that the Feast of Tabernacles, though constantly celebrated, remained unfulfilled. “For the true Feast of Tabernacles had not yet come. According to the words of the Prophet, however [an allusion to Psalm 118:27], God, the Lord of all things, has revealed himself to us in order to complete the construction of the tabernacle of our ruined habitation, human nature” (De anima, PG 46, 132B, cf. Daniélou, Bible and Liturgy, pp. 344f.)
-Benedict XVI

Episode 14: Episode 14: All You Need Is Love Feb 16, 2017

Show notes

<p>This week we reflect on the readings for this week in year A, which is the seventh Sunday in Epiphany: Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23 and Matthew 5:38-48.</p>

Show Notes:
It is all finally one big story and as Paul knows and tells the Corinthians, it is all finally also a story of Grace, Grace, Grace. If we are properly gob smacked by the revelation that each of us now houses something of the divine, we are further bowled over to see that even when we do this imperfectly, we get saved anyway. The Lectionary asks us to skip verses 12-15. Granted, Paul’s imagery here is a little odd and this passage could easily be twisted into some works-righteousness scheme of salvation if one were not careful. But in context it is still all about grace. God does expect us to build on the solid foundation that just is Christ and his Gospel. Whether we build mightily and sturdily or poorly and weakly, however, we will still emerge saved because Temples of God’s Holy Spirit are just going to endure with that Spirit one way or the other!
-Scott Hoezee
more at: http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters/epiphany-7a/?type=lectionary_epistle#sthash.bRlPyaas.dpuf

I work as a chaplain for a non-profit hospice in Las Vegas. Anyone who has served as a chaplain will tell you that the work can be routine but it is never dull. The problems and situations that you find yourself working through with people in hospice run the gamut from the touching to the tragic to the hilarious (“hospice humor” is a thing – next time you meet a hospice worker, ask). But one thing has never come up in seven years. Nobody has ever asked me if they’ve gotten their politics correct. I’ve never heard a confession that someone had not stood up for marginalized people enough. Never have I had to absolve somebody on a deathbed for “being complicit in unjust structures.” There has never been a long dialogue between a hospice patient and me examining if the Kingdom has been sufficiently brought about by someone’s earthly efforts. Politics has a way of becoming a non-factor in one’s life after a terminal diagnosis.
-http://www.mbird.com/2017/02/letter-from-a-hospice-chaplain-in-las-vegas/

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-foster-father-sick-children-2017-story.html

Episode 13: Episode 13: You've Heard It Said.... Feb 09, 2017

Show notes

<p>This week we reflect on the readings for this week in year A, which is the sixth Sunday in Epiphany: Deuteronomy 30:15-20, 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 and Matthew 5:21-37.</p>

Show Notes:

According to Gowan (1998), the prophets to ancient Israel did not preach a legalistic message of moral reformation but an evangelistic message of faith in the God who raises the dead. From the first days of the human race in Eden, the curse threatened against sin is "dying you shall die," and the same curse hangs over Israel after Yahweh cut covenant with it at Sinai. The message of the prophets is not, "Israel has sinned: therefore, Israel needs to get its act together or it will die." The message is, "Israel has sinned; therefor Israel must die, and its only hope is to entrust itself to a God who will give it new life on the far side of death." Or even, "Israel has sinned; Israel is already dead. Cling to the God who raises the dead." This is precisely the prophetic message of 1-2 Kings, which systematically dismantles Israel's confidence in everything but the omnipotent mercy and patience of God.
-Peter Leithart

Some Protestants don’t view Roman Catholics as Christians, and won’t acknowledge the Roman Catholic Church as a true church. A Reformational Catholic regards Catholics as brothers, and regrets the need to modify that brotherhood as “separated.” To a Reformational Catholic, it’s blindingly obvious that there’s a billion-member Church of Jesus Christ centered in Rome. Because it regards the Roman Catholic Church as barely Christian, Protestantism leaves Roman Catholicism to its own devices. “They” had a pedophilia scandal, and “they” have a controversial pope. A Reformational Catholic recognizes that turmoil in the Roman Catholic Church is turmoil in his own family.
-Peter Leithart

Let us try to draw out the essential points of this conversation in order to know Jesus and to understand our Jewish brothers better. The central point, it seems to me, is wonderfully revealed in one of the most moving scenes that Neusner presents in his book. In his interior dialogue Neusner has just spent the whole day following Jesus, and now he retires for prayer and Torah study with the Jews of a certain town, in order to discuss with the rabbi of that place—once again he is thinking in terms of contemporaneity across the millennia—all that he has heard. The rabbi cites from the Babylonian Talmud: “Rabbi Simelai expounded: ‘Six hundred and thirteen commandments were given to Moses, three hundred and sixty-five negative ones, corresponding to the number of the days of the solar year, and two hundred forty-eight positive commandments, corresponding to the parts of man’s body. “‘David came and reduced them to eleven…. “‘Isaiah came and reduced them to six…. “‘Isaiah again came and reduced them to two…. “‘Habakkuk further came and based them on one, as it is said: “But the righteous shall live by his faith”’ (Hab 2:4).” Neusner then continues his book with the following dialogue: “‘So,’ the master says, ‘is this what the sage, Jesus, had to say?’ “I: ‘Not exactly, but close.’ “He: ‘What did he leave out?’ “I: ‘Nothing.’ “He: ‘Then what did he add?’ “I: ‘Himself’” (pp. 107–8). This is the central point where the believing Jew Neusner experiences alarm at Jesus’ message, and this is the central reason why he does not wish to follow Jesus, but remains with the “eternal Israel”: the centrality of Jesus’ “I” in his message, which gives everything a new direction. At this point Neusner cites as evidence of this “addition” Jesus’ words to the rich young man: “If you would be perfect, go, sell all you have and come, follow me” (cf. Mt 19:21; Neusner, p. 109 [emphasis added]). Perfection, the state of being holy as God is holy (cf. Lev 19:2, 11:44), as demanded by the Torah, now consists in following Jesus. It is only with great respect and reverence that Neusner addresses this mysterious identification of Jesus and God that is found in the discourses of the Sermon on the Mount. Nonetheless, his analysis shows that this is the point where Jesus’ message diverges fundamentally from the faith of the “eternal Israel.” Neusner demonstrates this after investigating Jesus’ attitude toward three fundamental commandments: the fourth commandment (the commandment to love one’s parents), the third commandment (to keep holy the Sabbath), and, finally, the commandment to be holy as God is holy (which we touched upon just a moment ago). Neusner comes to the disturbing conclusion that Jesus is evidently trying to persuade him to cease following these three fundamental commandments of God and to adhere to Jesus instead.
-Benedict XVI

Episode 12: Episode 12: Epiphany 5A: Worship and Freedom Jan 31, 2017

Show notes

<p>This week we reflect on the readings for this week in year A, which is the fifth Sunday in Epiphany: Isaiah 58:1-12, 1 Corinthian 2:1-16 and Matthew 5:13-20.</p>

Show Notes:

Peace in the universe through peace with God, the union of above and below—that is how we can describe the essential intention of worship in all the world’s religions. But this basic definition of the attributes of worship is marked concretely by an awareness of man’s fall and estrangement. Of necessity it takes place as a struggle for atonement, forgiveness, reconciliation. The awareness of guilt weighs down on mankind. Worship is the attempt to be found at every stage of world history to bring back the world and one’s own life into right order.And yet an immense feeling of futility pervades everything. This is the tragic face of human history. How can man again connect the world with God? How is he supposed to make valid atonement? The only real gift man should give to God is himself. As his religious awareness becomes more highly developed, so his awareness that any gift but himself is too little, in fact absurd, becomes more intense. Historically, this sense of inadequacy has been the source of grotesque and horrific forms of cult. The most extreme example is human sacrifice. Superficially, it seems to give the deity what is best, and yet more deeply it has to be seen as the most horrific evasion of the gift of self, the most horrific and therefore the most to be rejected. Thus, as religion becomes more highly developed, this terrible attempt at atonement is more and more discarded, but it also becomes clearer that in all worship it is not the real gift but a mere replacement that is given. The sacrificial system of all the world's religions, including Israel's, rests on the idea of representation- but how can sacrificial animals or the fruits of harvest represent man, make expiation for him? This is not representation but replacement, and worship with replacements turns out to be a replacement for worship. Somehow the real thing is missing.
-Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of The Liturgy

The Messiah was expected to bring a renewed Torah—his Torah. Paul may be alluding to this in the Letter to the Galatians when he speaks of the “law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). His great, passionate defense of freedom from the Law culminates in the following statement in chapter 5: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1). But when he goes on to repeat at 5:13 the claim that “you were called to freedom,” he adds, “Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another” (Gal 5:13). And now he explains what freedom is—namely, freedom in the service of good, freedom that allows itself to be led by the Spirit of God. It is precisely by letting oneself be led by God’s Spirit, moreover, that one becomes free from the Law. Immediately after this Paul details what the freedom of the Spirit actually consists in and what is incompatible with it.

The “law of Christ” is freedom—that is the paradox of Paul’s message in the Letter to the Galatians. This freedom has content, then, it has direction, and it therefore contradicts what only apparently liberates man, but in truth makes him a slave. The “Torah of the Messiah” is totally new and different—but it is precisely by being such that it fulfills the Torah of Moses.

The greater part of the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt 5:17–7:27) is devoted to the same topic...
-Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration

Episode 11: Episode 11: Sermons Preached On The Molehill Jan 24, 2017

Show notes

<p>This week we reflect on the readings for this week in year A, which is the third Sunday in Epiphany: Micah 6:1-8; 1st Corinthians 1:18-31;  and Matthew 5:1-12.</p>

Episode 10: Episode 10: Fishing For Epiphanies Jan 18, 2017

Show notes

<p>This week we reflect on the readings for this week in year A, which is the third Sunday in Epiphany: Isaiah 9:1-4; 1st Corinthians 1:10-18 and Matthew 4:12-23.</p>

Show Notes:

Is Christ divided? or, literally, ‘Has Christ been parcelled out?’ (13). Paul is asking the Corinthians, with all their division, ‘Do you suppose that there are fragments of Christ that can be distributed among different groups? If you have Christ, you have all of him. Jesus cannot be divided.’ We cannot have half a person, as though we said: ‘Please come in, but leave your legs outside.’ This, incidentally, throws light on such common phrases as ‘wanting more of Christ’. It cannot be: we should rather be allowing Christ to have more of us. We are the disintegrated ones whom Christ is gradually making whole, so that we become more like him—integrated and entire. The same argument applies to wanting more of the Holy Spirit. If he is personal, a Person, than we either have him living within us or we do not; again, our desire and prayer should be for the Holy Spirit to have more of us.
-David Prior

The phrase “from that time Jesus began” (v. 17) is followed by the infinitive “to preach.” The identical phrase appears again in 16:21, this time with the infinitive “to show” following. Now comes the content of the preaching or showing. Even though the phrase appears but twice in Matthew, it has the look of a formula introducing something of major importance. Some students of Matthew’s Gospel see it as an important indicator of Matthew’s view of the unfolding of Jesus’ ministry.In any case, “Jesus began to preach,” and the public work of Jesus is defined as preaching the nearness of the kingdom of God. In all too many cases today, the term “preaching” has associations with scolding, harping on moral platitudes, or dwelling on the obvious or the irrelevant. In the Scriptures, however, “to preach” (kēryssō) is not to deal in shopworn or secondhand goods, but to announce as a herald (kēryx) the news that is both gut-wrenching and glad beyond all expectation.
-Andre Resner

Neither religious philosophy nor existence can provide the criterion for the genuineness of Christianity. In philosophy, man discovers what is humanly knowable about the depths of being; in existence, man lives out what is humanly livable. But Christianity disappears the moment it allows itself to be dissolved into a transcendental precondition of human self-understanding in thinking or living, knowledge or deed.
-Hans Urs von Balthasar

“As we have taken the circle as a symbol of reason and madness, we may very well take the cross as a symbol at once of mystery and health. Buddhism is centripetal, but Christianity is centrifugal: it breaks out. For the circle is perfect and infinite in its nature; but it is fixed for ever in its size; it can never be larger or smaller. But the cross, though it has at its head a collision and a contradiction, can extend its four arms for ever without altering its shape. Because is has a paradox in its center it can grow without changing. The circle returns upon itself and is bound. The cross opens its arms to the four winds; it is a signpost for free travelers.”
-G.K. Chesterton

Episode 9: Episode 9: Epiphany 2, Year A Jan 10, 2017

Show notes

<p>This week we reflect on the readings for this week in year A, which is the Baptism of the Lord: Isaiah 49:1-7, 1st Corinthians 1:1-9 and John 1:29-42.</p>

Show Notes:
The paradox of an Israel sent to Israel is part of the powerful thrust the OT towards the NT, since not even the remnant of true Israelites can fulfill the boundless expectations of vs.1-13. We are driven to seek a more perfect embodiment of God's light, salvation (6), and covenant (8) in Christ at the head of his church, 'the Israel of God.'
-NIV Commentary

“It is an item in faith that we are children of God; there is plenty of experience in us against it. The faith that surmounts this evidence and is able to warm itself at the fire of God’s love, instead of having to steal love and self-acceptance from other sources, is actually the root of holiness.”
-Richard Lovelace

The Church is not exempt from this low an- thropology. It is sadly humorous to ponti cate about the virtues of the early church. e early church was a mess, lled with sinners. St. Paul, in his rst epistle to the Corinthians, points this out. Paul lets them know they are far from a pious community, that there is immorality amongst them that shocks even the pagans.

This is very important to understand: anthropologically speaking, there is no difference between Christians and non-Christians. When the church forgets this truth, she gets herself into all sorts of trouble. Instead of making herself irrelevant, the church that has an N.W.A. anthropology has something to say and can speak to the culture at large. A church with a low an- thropology can see herself as part of the problem and, in humility, share the good news of God’s grace. A church with a low anthropology is not shocked by the sin of the world, but can minister to people—“Dope Man” and “Gang- sta” alike—free of judgement and assumption.
-Jacob Smith, "Straight Outta Corinth"

The Christology of John the Baptist:

"A man is coming right after me": The historical Jesus (his true humanity)
"Who actually ranks well above me": The royal Jesus (his true messianity)
"Because he came way before me": The preexistent Jesus (his true divinity) -Dale Brune, The Gospel of John: A Commentary

Episode 8: Episode 8: The Baptism of Jesus, There's an Epiphany There! Jan 03, 2017

Show notes

<p>This week we reflect on the readings for this week in year A, which is the Baptism of the Lord: Isaiah 42:1-9, Acts 10:34-43 and Matthew 3:13-17.</p>

Show Notes:

If, therefore, we treat Christianity under the common name of ‘redemption religion’ we must add that in it a conception of salvation of quite a distinctive sort emerges. In all other doctrines of salvation, the belief in liberation is founded on the conviction of the ineradicable nobility of mankind, or on a metaphysical likeness of the soul with God. The god-like in man must come into its own. Jesus, however instead of this, sees a deep gulf between God and man. According to Him salvation consists rather in this, That God of His free grace comes down to meet man. It is the highest degree misleading that the infinite worth of the human soul is stressed as a fundamental doctrine of Christianity. For this immediately obscures the distinctive significance of Jesus preaching. With Jesus stress is laid rather on the fact that man has forfeited his worth but that nevertheless God accepts him.
-Karl Holle

Episode 7: Episode 7: Christmas 1, The Feast Of The Holy Name Dec 27, 2016

Show notes

<p>In this week's episode we discuss the texts for the first Sunday after Christmas: Numbers 6:22-27, Philippians 2:5-11 and Luke 2:15-21. </p>

Show Notes:

As a strictly intellectual matter, I am very confident that God exists. In dark times, though — and this has been a dark year in many ways — I wonder if the Absolute relates to us in the way that my church teaches, if he will really wipe away every tear and make all things that we love new...This is the wager that Christmas offers us, year in and year out. It isn’t Pascal’s famous bet on God’s very existence; rather, it’s a bet on God’s love for us, a wager that all the varieties of religious experience, wonderful and terrifying and inscrutable, should be interpreted in the light of one specific history-altering experience: a divine incarnation, a baby crying beneath a pulsing star...The odds on that wager feel different year to year. They change with joy and suffering, tranquillity and crisis, sickness and health...But I haven’t found better ones. Merry Christmas.
-Ross Douthat,
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/24/opinion/sunday/varieties-of-religious-experience.html?_r=0

One cannot simply read the Bible like other books. One must really be prepared to put questions to it.… The reason for this is that in the Bible God speaks to us. And one cannot just proceed to think about God under one’s own steam; instead one must ask God questions. Naturally one can read the Bible like any other book and so study it from the point of view of textual criticism, etc. There is absolutely nothing to be said against this. Only this way of going about things does not unlock the essence of the Bible but only what lies on its surface. Think of how we come to understand something said to us by a person we love not by dissecting it into bits but by simply accepting it as the kind of word it is, so that for days it echoes within us simply as the word of that particular person whom we love; the more we, like Mary, “ponder it in the heart,” the more the person who has said it to us becomes accessible to us in that word. That is just how we should treat the word of the Bible.… Every other place outside the Bible has become too uncertain for me; I am afraid that I will encounter only a divine double [einen göttlichen Doppelgänger] of my own self in it. Is it possible, then, for you to comprehend that I would rather make a sacrificium intellectus by confessing that I do not yet understand this or that passage in Scripture, with the certainty that it too will one day reveal itself as God’s own word. I would rather do that than on the basis of my own opinion declare: this is what is divine in it and that is what is human!? (I make the sacrificium intellectus in just these matters and only in these matters, that is, with the true God in view! Who after all would not make a sacrificium intellectus anywhere in this respect?) I also want to say to you now by way of an entirely personal note, that since I learned to read the Bible in this way—which is by no means such a long time ago—it has become more wonderful to me every day.… In a few days it will be Easter … Resurrection. That is certainly not an idea that is in itself reasonable, an eternal truth. I take it to be what the Bible also takes it to be, of course: resurrection from real death (not from sleep) to real life, from being far away from God [der Gottesferne] and from godlessness [der Gottlosigkeit] to new life with Christ in God. God has spoken—and we know this through the Bible—See, I am making all things new. God made that come true at Easter.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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