Two weeks ago, on the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord, Judy and I hosted the Sunday Coffee Hour as a celebration of Mardi Gras. It is a favorite holiday, not only for the food, music, and memories of New Orleans, but also for its place as prequel to Ash Wednesday and the observance of Lent.
In hosting Coffee Hour (for the first time since COVID), I learned three things:
We will gather each Wednesday morning in Lent at 10:30 AM for brief worship. The theme will be lamentations. In the Bible space is given for people to share their pain, their sorrow, their loss, the things which cut deep in their souls. The ministry of lamentation does not only call for each of us to identify and tell our own stories of lament, but also to show up for others to listen and hear their stories as well. In the midst of Lamentations is a healing God who listens, loves, and moves us toward healing and new beginnings. The first Lesson for Ash Wednesday is from the book of Joel and helps us see the connection between our suffering and lamentations and the worship of God’s people. The blog is an edited excerpt from the book “Grace All Around Us” published by Augsburg Fortress in February 2007.
In the verses preceding Mark’s Transfiguration passage, Jesus has just articulated what is arguably his most disturbing, difficult teaching of all: that he must suffer, die, and rise again – and that anyone who wishes to follow him must “deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me”. The Transfiguration’s light, then, acts as a kind of reassurance for Peter, John, and James (and for the rest of us!). It’s as if Mark is saying: We’re now making the turn toward Golgotha, and that means descending into the valley of the shadow of death. But fear not! Keep this astonishing, mysterious mountaintop story in mind as we go. Carry it like a torch, for it can help show the way – not least because it gives us a glimpse of where all this is headed…
This year of the Lectionary is the Year of Mark and most of the Gospel lessons in this season come from this Gospel. I want to share an outline of Mark with you so that you can refer to it from time to time during the coming year. The Gospel of Mark is arranged in an outline of three sections, and in each section there is a seeing miracle.
In the Gospel for this coming Sunday we go to church with Jesus. “Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught..”
Besides the usual group who assembled, with the scribes who were their teachers, there was also an unexpected guest who joined them for worship. “Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.” Today we would say that the man was afflicted with a mental illness.
I have an “ecclesiastical daughter,” Gretchen, who is currently serving as a chaplain in a palliative care program in the state of Washington. I served as her mentor when she did her initial ministry field work in my parish more than 30 years ago. I am delighted she found her way into chaplaincy and we share this ministry experience.
During this week we will again celebrate the life and ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is especially relevant that we celebrate this modern-day prophet during the season of Epiphany. In his book, “Stride Toward Freedon,” Dr. King describes a key Epiphany of his life.
In Matthew 2 we are given the story of three seekers on a spiritual journey. Outside our doors we are confronted with societal spiritual hunger as intense as it has ever been. They “bend the knee” here and there. In the mission field outside our door the American ethos is not secular, but personal. People are seeking answers to the anxiety of our time. Successful churches understand the holes in people’s lives and fill them. The American magi are pragmatic, personal. There is no natural fit between the complexities of Lutheran theology and popular American thought. How do we translate these complexities and chisel out space for justification by grace, high Christology, law\gospel tension? We are a church somewhere between an immigrant clan and the American experience.
This Christmas season blog neither reflects upon our Lord’s Nativity nor ponders the mysteries of the Incarnation. However, I hope it will cause a smile, and perhaps, bring to mind a long-forgotten memory of a Christmas past.
On Christmas Eve in the Year of our Lord 2023 we are not at peace. War and death rage on in Gaza, Ukraine, with ongoing conflict in Burma, Sudan, Ethiopia and elsewhere. Hate crimes and acts of bigotry mar our public life. Our imminent election season divides us and scares us. Our welcome of our migrant new neighbors is touched by resentment and fear. We In our country, in our world, in our lives, we are not at peace on this Christmas Eve of 2023.