DAVID, A GOOD BET ?

In today's lectionary lesson from 1 Samuel 16:1-13, God sends Samuel to anoint a new King over Israel.

Samuel is hesitant at first for fear of his own life, but God gives him reason to go, making the journey one of sacrifice, sanctification and anointing. 

In the illustration, the chip is embellished with the Star of David. What is the traditional interpretation of the star? What does it have to say about the world and our relationships?


The way the game eventually plays out, was David a good bet to lead God's people? What does that have to say about our relationship to our God and others?


16:1 The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons."

16:2 Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me." And the LORD said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.'

16:3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you."

16:4 Samuel did what the LORD commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?"

16:5 He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

16:6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed is now before the LORD."

16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."

16:8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one."

16:9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one."

16:10 Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen any of these."

16:11 Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here."

16:12 He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one."

16:13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.

Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line

WATER AS LIFE...

A woman waits for water

What would you say is the most valuable physical resource in the world today or for all time for that matter? 

It is a liquid but it's not oil. It covers the majority of the earth but replenishes only in its fresh form. It has made life possible in the temperate zones of our planet which is not possible on those worlds that orbit closest to us. 

In one of my favorite films of all time, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, an aged prospector who is leading two greenhorns in their first gold mining adventure in the mountains of central Mexico, warns when the two greenhorns splash water from canteens on rock streaked with pyrite, fool's gold, "let me know before you go splashing water around again, water can be precious, sometimes more than gold."


What is precious about the exchange that occurs between Jesus and the Woman at the Well? How does her Samaritan status influence the exchange? What does that tell us about our relationships with others in the world today? Water is a precious commodity of the earth we must share. How does that make us like our neighbor?


 John 4:5-42
4:5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

4:6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

4:7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."

4:8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)

4:9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)

4:10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

4:11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?

4:12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?"

4:13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,

4:14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."

4:15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

4:16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back."

4:17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband';

4:18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!"

4:19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet.

4:20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem."

4:21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

4:23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.

4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

4:25 The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us."

4:26 Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

4:27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?"

4:28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people,

4:29 "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?"

4:30 They left the city and were on their way to him.

4:31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something."

4:32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."

4:33 So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?"

4:34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.

4:35 Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.

4:36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

4:37 For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.'

4:38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

4:39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done."

4:40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days.

4:41 And many more believed because of his word.

4:42 They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line

Born from above?

The Butterfly Nebula from the Hubble space scope

In classical Greek, the word "psyche" has two connotations. It can mean soul as in our spiritual self. But it is also the word for butterfly. The creature that metamorphoses from the earthbound caterpillar to the winged beauty of spring was for the ancient Greeks a symbol of our soul's development into its full potential and presence.
The ancient Greeks even had a story of the relationship between Eros and Psyche, and how Psyche gained eternal existence because her example of showing trust in another.
As we have been able to extend our gaze into the heavens, we have been both thrilled and awe struck as to what a vast universe there is beyond us. It is both above and beyond much of who we are in this earthbound abode.

In today's lectionary lesson from Matthew 3:1-17, Jesus speaks to Nicodemus, a very faith seeking and inquisitive man who wonders what it means to trust and what results from such a relationship. How do we look at being born from above? What does this have to say about our earthbound development and our expression of trust in others?


John 3:1-17
3:1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.

3:2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."

3:3 Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."

3:4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?"

3:5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.

3:6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

3:7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.'

3:8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

3:9 Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?"

3:10 Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

3:11 "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.

3:12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

3:13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

3:14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

3:15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

3:17 "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line

THE FORKS IN THE ROAD OF OUR LIVES

There are times in our lives when we make the choices of who we are, how we will relate to others and how we see ourselves spiritually. All of these aspects of our selves and relations are connected. Which direction to we take?
We make many of these decisions based upon assumptions about our role or duty in this life as it relates to others expectations about us. We want to be popular, powerful and prestigious in relation to others.
In the lectionary passage for today, Jesus is "tempted" to fulfill all the expectations of others in his call to live out his life.

How do the three temptaions relate to the telling of the gospel story itself? How do the three responses witness to Jesus' sense of his own self as a leader? How are the three temptations a lesson for our own living? 

Matthew 4:1-11


4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

4:2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.

4:3 The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."

4:4 But he answered, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

4:5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,

4:6 saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"

4:7 Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;

4:9 and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."

4:10 Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"

4:11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line

HOW ARE YOU BEING TRANSFIGURED?

A cubist interpretation by Alex M., 3rd grader. Inspired by Picasso.. 

According to the lectionary, March, 6, 2011 is considered Transfiguration Sunday. The scripture section from Matthew where Jesus takes Peter, James and John to Mt. Tabor and there he is transfigured in the company of Moses and Elijah is replete with possibilities for life interpretation.
One way of looking at the narrative is its ability to relate the passing-on of the baton from the traditions of Moses and Elijah to the work of God that would occur in the lives of Peter, James and John who would become spiritual  leaders among the Gentiles.The transfiguration then could be described as something indicative of their unique time, an occurrence that looks both back and forward at a precise moment.
The cubist art interpretation illustrated here by a 3rd grader, Alex M. has the quality of both looking forward and back at the same moment. Inspired by Picasso who attempted in cubism to bring an expression of depth to an ordinary flat canvas, cubism also assisted in expressing the fractured nature of our selves. While we are all human, we each live in our time in a unique way, much transfigured by our experiences.

How are you being transfigured? When was the last time you had a moment in which you sensed looking both back and forward at the same time? What did it mean for you?

In the passages given below, the narrative ends with Jesus asking the disciples not to mention this occurrence to anyone until after his death and resurrection. Why?

Matthew 17:1-9
17:1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.

17:2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.

17:3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

17:4 Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

17:5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!"

17:6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.

17:7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid."

17:8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

17:9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead." 


Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line