SS. Peter and Paul

As I finished my morning swim I noticed that the reflections of the sun off the ripples in the lake were running up and down the day lilies, making them shimmer.
Today is the very old feast of SS. Peter and Paul.  Christians have been celebrating it on June 29 since the third century.  The Acts of the Apostles ends with St. Paul in Rome.  Tradition has it that St. Peter also ended up in Rome, the center of the Empire.  They both died there for their faith in the mid-60's, Peter by being crucified upside down, Paul by being beheaded.  To me St. Paul represents the force for expansion and newness; St. Peter represents the force for holding together and tradition.  Both forces are crucial for the survival of any movement.

Feed My Sheep

The Sea of Tiberius, John's name for the Sea of Galilee.
Almost at the end of John's Gospel (21:1-23) the Risen Jesus asks Peter three times, "Do you love me more than these others love me."  Peter answers three times, "You know I do."  Jesus three times says, "Feed my sheep."  Jesus makes it clear that leadership among his followers is founded on love and humble service.   Pope Francis tells church leaders that they should "smell like the sheep."  (This passage is never scheduled as the Gospel for a Sunday.)

Enduring Nation

I started this morning to reflect on Independence Day.  The first speech I spent time with was Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.  While he speaks directly of  "a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal," he doesn't mention slavery.  But the war was fought over whether one person can own another person or whether they are equal in the eyes of God. Lincoln says, "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."  We endure, but there are still people who think that there is not room in our country for people who are not white.

Light to the Nations

The Jewish scriptures are mainly concerned with God's relationship with the Israelites.  There are some passages, however, that show God's desire to have a relationship with humanity.  In Isaiah 49:6 God says, "It is not enough for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back the survivors of Israel; I shall make you a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach the remotest parts of the earth."

Truth to Power

The rest of John the Baptist's life was a far cry from the joyful, folksy scene surrounding his birth and naming.  He was called to preach repentance and to challenge hardened hearts.  He criticized  King Herod for his relations with his brother's wife and paid for it with his head (Matthew 14:3-12.)  By speaking truth to power he challenges us to do the same.

Jewish Roots

When I read Luke's account of the birth of John the Baptist, I am struck at the author's highlighting the Jewishness of Zechariah and Elizabeth.  In  the face of developing bitterness between those Jews who followed the way of Jesus and  those who followed the way of the rabbis, Luke wants to make it clear that Christianity has its roots in Judaism.  At the very beginning of his Gospel in this well-told story he gives us a lovely picture of a Jewish neighborhood gathered for the circumcision of this little baby (1:57-66;80.)
It didn't take long for this early bitterness to grow among Christians into a mean anti-Judaism and eventually over centuries to grow into the cruel prejudice of anti-Semitism.  Reading Luke's Gospel is like a racist finding out that his ancestors were black.

Hiddenness and Smallness

Mountain laurel grows wild and unattended.
The chair in the corner was my father's chair.  There he read newspapers and books.  He also kept in the stand there two small prayer books from which I saw him read every day.  I don't recall his ever telling me what they were, but somehow I knew that he was praying.
Mark has only two of Jesus' parables about the Reign of God (the Greek word usually translated "Kingdom" refers, not to a place but to the act of ruling.)  One is about seeds growing without the farmer knowing how; the other is about tiny seeds producing a large plant (4:26-32.)  God extends his rule over each of us and all of us slowly in powerful ways that we do not notice.

Unobserved Growth

Every summer Saturday evening when I was about ten an evangelical group worshiped in an open space downtown in a way that they could be heard even up on the hills that surrounded the town.  My father and I were walking on the path over the hill to church for confession.  I started laughing and making fun of their worship service.  My father stopped and turned to me and simply said, "We don't make fun of other people's religion."  It was many years later when the ecumenical movement was just beginning that I worked hard to help people understand each other's religion.
Jesus said, "The Reign of God is like a man who scattered seed on the land.  Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does no know" (Mark 4:26-27.)

Tiny Beginnings

I was about five.  My father took me with him to the grocery store.  There was a black woman shopping (She was the only black person in town, the servant to two old sisters.)  I had never seen a black person before and stood looking at her curiously.  My father came over and pulled me aside and said, "Stop staring at her.  She's the same as you."  Those two short sentences influenced the rest of my life as I preached and worked for racial equality.
Jesus said that the Reign of God is like a tiny mustard seed that grows into a large tree.

Family of Jesus

I wish I could also send you the sweet smell.
The crowd told Jesus, "Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you."(Mark 3:31-35.)  A very frequently asked question is "Who are these relatives that we hear nothing about in the rest of the Gospel?"  Throughout church history three solutions have evolved: (1) they were the children of Mary and Joseph, born after Jesus; (2)they were children of Joseph by an earlier marriage; (3) they were cousins of Jesus.  The Catholic commentary that I most often use says that we can believe any of these.
Jesus, concerned about something else entirely, answered, "Whoever does the will of my Father is my mother and sister and brother."  Obeying the Father makes us family.