EPC Resources
2/27/22
This coming Sunday we celebrate Transfiguration Sunday, told in three of the four synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This Sunday we will read from Luke, as we are in the third cycle of the lectionary, year C.
Peter, James, and John go up the mountain with Jesus to pray and this is where the transfiguration takes place, including the appearance of Moses and Elijah.
The word "transfiguration" comes from the Latin roots *trans*- ("across") and *figura* ("form, shape"). It thus signifies a change of form or appearance, and that is exactly what happens. Jesus becomes radiant and glorious with light.
Transfiguration Sunday marks the transition between the season of Epiphany and the season of Lent. At Epiphany, Jesus’ identity as fully God in fully human form is revealed to us. At Transfiguration, Jesus’ transformation into radiant light hints at the great scope of his work, a thought we will take with us as we journey through Lent toward Holy Week and Easter.
For all the lectionary selections for this coming Sunday, visit this site:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=116
Our First Covid Christmas
Click the link below to read how we impacted Nashville in Christmas of 2020.
Build Up
In this week’s gospel story (Mark 12:38-44), often called “the widow’s mite,” Jesus is commenting on hypocritical behavior (sin) and generous behavior (stewardship or tithing).
In this scene, Jesus raises up the person most people would look down upon, and he criticizes the person most people would give respect.
Jesus is certainly discouraging hypocritical behavior and encouraging generous giving for the building up of the church community.
But he is also talking about our inner state of being and how this determines the quality of our days, life in this world, and whether or not we taste the “kingdom of heaven among us.” The Apostle Paul, St. Augustine, and Luther all wrote about this problem. All of them describe the core problem as human beings suffering from “incurvatus in se,” being blindly turned in on themselves.
A life that looks good on the outside, but is inwardly driven by selfishness, rigid private agendas and the pursuit of “measuring up” at all costs is a life turned in on itself, cut off from fluid relationality to others and to the Divine.
A life of open-heartedness and relationality, like that of Jesus Christ, is the opposite of being turned in on oneself.
A life of generosity – whether wealthy or poor – is the opposite of being turned in on oneself.
Take a look at all the lectionary readings for Sunday here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=228
See you Sunday!
Jane
The First Commandments
The gospel reading for this coming Sunday is Mark 12:28-34 in which we witness a conversation between Jesus and a scribe regarding the first commandments. We know this commandment well: “to love…” to love God and to love others as we love ourselves. Mark 12:28-34.
The crowd is left speechless as they hear Jesus and this scribe agree so wholeheartedly on which commandment is the greatest and what it means.
What is this love that leaves them without words? Is it a feeling? A thought? A right belief or doctrine? A right group to which they might or might not belong?
Richard Rohr reminds us that first century Christians did not have doctrine or dogma. They did not have a singular identity as a people, but were Jews, gentiles, men, women, rich, poor, slaves, free, and citizens. They called themselves followers of “the way.” Perhaps the love of which Jesus and the scribe spoke is “the way,” a way of being, a way of acting, a way of living.
We will ponder more on these questions as well as others, as we take the gospel passage alongside the Deuteronomic text from which Jesus and his interlocutor reference.
Take a look at all the passages for this Sunday’s lectionary here: https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=227
See you Sunday!
Jesus Heals A Blind Man
What are we to do with this week’s gospel lesson of Jesus healing the blind man?
I am not always sure what the gospel healings mean to me or to contemporary Christians.
We each have a life cycle: being born, living, and one day passing on into the next life. This same life cycle applied to the people Jesus healed, even to Lazarus who was raised from death.
So what do healings mean? How are we to understand them?
Should we take the healing stories as metaphors for spiritual renewal. I do.
Should we regard them as mythological language that speaks to deep truths about the human condition and our ever-evolving relationship to what we call the divine? I do.
Should we dare to believe that God’s miraculous healings still take place, that Christians can and should pray for wholeness and healing for themselves and for each other? I do.
All these questions arise for me when I read the accounts of healings, and for this I am grateful. Within my own heart, and amongst fellow believers, these questions lead to rich discussion and heartfelt prayer. God uses our intellectual questions as well as the current situations in our lives to speak to our faith lives through the Living Word. This too is a miracle in my mind.
Take a look at all the lectionary readings for Sunday here, including the gospel reading:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=225
See you Sunday!
Jane