Ralph Milton's Rumours

These are the readings you will probably hear in church this coming Sunday, March 11th, which is the third Sunday in Lent.

Isaiah 55:1-9 - Powerful poetry this. A passage that needs a studied and passionate delivery by a lector next Sunday. It seems to me that the more eloquent the poetry, the more it tends to slither over the top of the lectern and die a quick death without ever really reaching the congregation, unless it is deliver with practiced skill and passion.
The food metaphor is probably the most widely used metaphor in the entire Judeo Christian tradition, followed closely by the thirst/water metaphor. They are powerful because they engage us viscerally rather than mentally. This passage uses both.
Extending that metaphor to help us grasp the last two verses, let's remember that those of us who struggle to communicate the gospel with words are the ones who wait on tables. We are not the cooks and we do not have the recipe.

Psalm 63:1-8 - paraphrased by Jim Taylor
Why do we need downtown churches? Because a few people come there to seek sanctuary.
1 Crowds of people crush me.
They bump and bounce my mind;
they break my concentration.
I feel like nothing more than a means to an end, merely a cog in the machinery.
I long for the gentle touch of loving fingers, the intimate whisper of acceptance.
2 So I have come looking for you, Lord, in your holy places.
3 In this dimmed light, in this hushed silence, I sense your presence.
4 I wish I could feel you as near me in the rabid frenzy of life in the city core.
I want to reach out and touch you in the marketplace as well as the chancel.
5 Then I will not feel alone; you will be part of every thought and every breath.
6 I will know you at my desk and in my den, in my bed and in my bathtub.
7 Nothing will come between us.
8 And I will hold you close in the forest of my fears.
From: Everyday Psalms
Wood Lake Books.
For details, go to www.woodlakebooks.com

1 Corinthians 10:1-13 - I was inspired by the Isaiah passage. This one makes me twitch. I flat out do not believe that God ever slaughtered thousands as punishment for sin. Not even one person.
I have no doubt that Paul believed that, and that the people of Israel believed that. But the Isaiah passage speaks to me of a God who aches - who yearns - for our love, just as we, when we are truly ourselves, yearn for God's love. When those two yearnings meet each other, all creation sings and rejoices.
When we turn from God, when we give way to our most base delusions, God weeps for us.

Luke 13:1-9 - This passage always reminds me of a sermon I heard preached at a covenanting service for a new minister. It was called, "Manuring the Kingdom."
People raised in cities don't usually know that manure, in an agricultural society, is not an effluent to be disposed of, but a valuable by-product produced by livestock and by humans. We're gradually coming back to that - learning ways in which the stuff we call garbage can be used creatively and well.
Manure spread too thickly burns and kills the vegetation. Spread thinly over the ground it helps things grow.
I thought that sermon title was apt for a covenanting service. The stuff people like Jim Taylor and me, as well as preachers - the stuff we churn out week by week can only be called BS if we take ourselves too seriously - if we lay it on too thick - if we don't lay it carefully around the roots where it can do some good.

A great preaching resource is "Spirit's Sightings and Spirit Screenings," which is available to those who have purchased the "Congregational Life" packet of the "Seasons of the Spirit" curriculum. The password can be found in each biblical background page. It's a great worship resource for worship and CE leaders, especially if you use the lectionary. Also, Spirit Sightings are offered about eight times a year, helping to make connections between current films and the lectionary readings."

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Rumors - The story of Jesus and the wilderness temptation (the first Sunday of Lent) and the story of the Prodigal (next week) are fundamentally about the most basic and most difficult concept in our theology. It is the hardest reality of human relationship - one we mostly don't understand at all.
There is no such thing as virtue without choice and there is no such thing as love without freedom.
We don't want it, and we don't like it, and we will play any kind of mind game available to rationalize our way out of the terrifying reality that God created us free to choose and to love.
And so the writer of Luke put words in Jesus' mouth that, to my limited perception at least, directly contradict the radical grace which Jesus lived. Similarly, Paul's broadside in 1st Corinthians is Paul speaking out of his dark and fearful side.
But Isaiah has a vision that rings with divine clarity and wisdom. It invites us home to the heart of God and into the celebration of joy which is God's promise.
The light shines brightly through the open door. We clutch the invitation in our sweaty, anxious fingers, knowing that it is our own choice now, whether we enter or not.
If we enter, we have to leave the comfortable squalor we know so well where we can blame someone -something - the system - them - it - God - for the pain we feel. If only someone would decide for us. If only someone would give us a push one way or the other.
So we wallow in our indecision.
Not to decide - is to decide.