Episode 75: P. +9A (Aug. 10) or Jesus Lizard Saves!
For Sunday, August 10, 2014
Episode 75
The Jesus lizard saves you more than 15% on car insurance
http://animalblogforkids.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/lizard.jpg
Welcome to the Pulpit Fiction Podcast, where two local pastors discuss the lectionary reading for the week.
This is episode 75 for Sunday August 10, Proper 14A/Ordinary 19A/9 Sundays after Pentecost.
Matthew 14:22-33 - Oh YE of little faith!
Genesis 37:1-28 - Joseph and his Brothers- part 1
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Introduction and Check-in
- Eid al-Fitr - Three day Muslim holiday breaking the Ramadan fast
-
- Praying for a ceasefire, HuffPo article on Gaza war and lack of cease fire
- Praying for a ceasefire, HuffPo article on Gaza war and lack of cease fire
Primary Scripture - Matthew 14:22-33 - Oh YE of little faith!
- Initial Thoughts
-
- Jesus walks on water is one of most famous signs of Jesus. “Walks on water” is a phrase that is deeply embedded into common language.
- Traditional Reading:
-
- Peter was doing well until he took his eyes off of Jesus.
- When he allowed the storm to distract him, then he started to sink
- So - Keep your eyes upon Jesus, and you’ll be okay.
- Peter was doing well until he took his eyes off of Jesus.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (as quoted by Charles Cousar in Texts For Preaching, Year A, p. 441) “Peter had to leave the ship and risk his life on the sea, in order to learn both his own weakness and the almighty power of his Lord. If Peter had not taken the risk, he would never have learned the meaning of faith… The road to faith passes through obedience to the call of Jesus. Unless a definitive step is demanded, the call vanishes in thin air, and if [people] imagine that they can follow Jesus without taking this step, they are deluding themselves like fanatics.”
- In The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer goes on to say “Faith is only real where there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.” (Ibid.)
- Jesus walks on water is one of most famous signs of Jesus. “Walks on water” is a phrase that is deeply embedded into common language.
- Bible Study
-
- Compared to Mark
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- Both:
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- Come immediately after miraculous feeding
- Disciples leave first
- Windstorm at sea
- Jesus walks
- Fear of disciples, who mistake him for a ghost.
- “Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.”
- Come immediately after miraculous feeding
- In Mark:
-
- Peter stays in the boat.
- Disciples "Did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.”
- Peter stays in the boat.
- In Matthew, the disciples’ place in the story is improved. Also reveals a development of the disciples’ faith, as opposed to Mark, which doesn’t have the disciples develop faith at all.
- Both:
- 2nd time that Jesus calms weather
-
- Mt 8:23-27 followed similar formula
-
- Windstorm at sea
- Jesus sleeping
- Disciples fear.
- Disciples: “Lord Save us”
- Jesus: “Why are you afraid, you of little faith.”
- Jesus: Calms the sea
- Disciples: Amazed, wonder “What sort of man is this?”
- Windstorm at sea
- This story:
-
- Windstorm at sea
- Jesus walking,
- Disciples fear.
- Jesus: “Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.”
- Invites Peter to walk too
- Peter: “Lord, Save me”
- Jesus: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
- Disciples: Worshiped Jesus, “Truly you are the son of God.”
- Windstorm at sea
- The cause of the fear for the disciples this time is not the storm, but the man walking. There is something expected about waves surrounding a boat. The fact that a man is on the water is not even the source of the fear. The fear comes the unidentified nature of the one walking.
-
- Question is not “Is this possible?” but “Who is doing this?”
- Peter challenges Jesus’ claim. “If it is you…” is a challenge.
- Jesus admonishes only Peter, who didn’t believe.
- All of the disciples respond with worship and declare “Truly you are the Son of God.”
- In Mt 27:54, the centurion makes a similar claim at the foot of the cross, “Truly this man was God’s Son.”
- Peter makes his famous “You are the messiah, the Son of the Living God,” in 16:16.
- Peter is not meant to walk on water. His place is in the boat, with Jesus.
- Question is not “Is this possible?” but “Who is doing this?”
- Mt 8:23-27 followed similar formula
- Compared to Mark
- Preaching Thoughts
-
- What is the relationship between obedience and faith. Bonhoeffer describes it as a paradox (like faith and works). How are we obedient? How does that reflect our faith? What lesson can we take from Peter’s foray into obedience and faith?
- “So, leave walking on water to Jesus. That ship which is the church is where we want to be, and it can provide the way for us to get to other places, so that disciples of the Son of God can be moving throughout the land!” (Mark Vitalis Hoffman, Working Preacher)
- Why did the disciples cross the sea? To get to the other side. Where there were people who needed to hear the Good News. So stop worrying about how to walk on water, and get in your boat and get to where people.
- What is the relationship between obedience and faith. Bonhoeffer describes it as a paradox (like faith and works). How are we obedient? How does that reflect our faith? What lesson can we take from Peter’s foray into obedience and faith?
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Secondary scripture - Genesis 37:1-28 - Jospeh and his Brothers- part 1
- Initial Thoughts
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- To read or not to read all 28 verses or to not read?
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- Yes- provides more of the background and motive for his brother's actions
- Yes- provides more of the background and motive for his brother's actions
- Beginning of the Joseph Novella - Gen. 37-50
- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
- Joseph: King of Dreams
- Coat of what?
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- long sleeves, long, many colors, stripes, etc
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_many_colors
- long sleeves, long, many colors, stripes, etc
- To read or not to read all 28 verses or to not read?
- Bible Study
-
- Joseph and Jacob
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- Both dreamers
- Both have “brother issues”
- Jacob deceives his father, Jacob’s sons deceive him
- Both dreamers
- Dreams
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- interpreted negatively by the brothers and father as a threat to their status and power - not interpreted by Jacob at all
- “At the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, worship begins with the opening sentences: ‘Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him... and we shall see what will become of his dreams’ (vv. 19-20 KJV). The effect is chilling.” - Patrick Wilson, Feasting on the Word – Year A, Volume 3
- interpreted negatively by the brothers and father as a threat to their status and power - not interpreted by Jacob at all
- The Brothers
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- 12 Brothers will become 12 tribes
- Joseph is sent to his brothers to check on their shalom (well-being)
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- Joseph usually did not go into the field and gave “bad reports”(v.2)
- There is clearly no shalom between the brothers (v.4)
- Jacob is not fool when it comes to inter-brother discord
- Joseph usually did not go into the field and gave “bad reports”(v.2)
- 12 Brothers will become 12 tribes
- The “Killing”
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- Trying to overcome the dream (basis for so many stories)
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- Oedipus
- Heroes
- Lost
- Oedipus
- Two traditions: Reuben and the Ishmaelites and Judah and the Midianites - two tellings of the same stories
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- Both Reuben and Judah are portrayed as the merciful brothers
- Both Reuben and Judah are portrayed as the merciful brothers
- Trying to overcome the dream (basis for so many stories)
- Favoritism and Chosenness
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- At the center of God’s interactions with God’s people
- How does being chosen manifest itself?
- Privilege and responsibility
- Helps to have tact...Joseph did not have any (yet)
- While Jacob will receive his father’s blessing, he will not become a patriarch - God will remain the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob not Joseph
- At the center of God’s interactions with God’s people
- God
-
- Is never mentioned - but it does not mean that God is not present
- Terence Fretheim, NIB: Genesis - “God works in and through even the worst that this family can perpetrate; in everything - even evil - God works for good...The reader will be tempted to fall into one ditch or another in interpreting this dialectic: either divine determinism where God fully controls events, or deism, where God must simply make do with whatever human action turns up and acts with no independent initiative. Neither of these options fully grasps the theological perspective that governs the story.”
- "I believe that God can and will let good come out of everything, even the greatest evil.... I believe that even our mistakes and shortcomings are not in vain and that it is no more difficult for God to deal with them than with our supposedly good deeds.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 8 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009), 46.
- Is never mentioned - but it does not mean that God is not present
- Joseph and Jacob
- Preaching Thoughts
-
- A message of hope- contrary to all human will and actions- faith hope and love win. Contrary to all outside perceptions- Sarah can’t conceive, Isaac will be sacrificed, Esau wants to kill Jacob, Jacob is stuck away from the promised land, Joseph is sold into slavery, - God is working within all things and lovingly calling creation to a eschatological kingdom of justice and peace.
- The 12 brothers represent the 12 tribes of Israel. The 11 “bad brothers” will not be punished for their misdeeds or cast out of the circle of blessing
- A message of hope- contrary to all human will and actions- faith hope and love win. Contrary to all outside perceptions- Sarah can’t conceive, Isaac will be sacrificed, Esau wants to kill Jacob, Jacob is stuck away from the promised land, Joseph is sold into slavery, - God is working within all things and lovingly calling creation to a eschatological kingdom of justice and peace.
CLOSING
TY listeners
Shout outs:
Suz Cate- "Should the Lord’s table/Communion/Eucharist be conditional on baptism/fealty to God/Church or Confession or is it the outward and visible sign of God’s unconditional love and grace?"
:) There you guys go being all binary again! It's both!
First, a disclaimer: As an Episcopal priest I have taken vows to conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of The Episcopal Church, and therefore am bound to require that Baptism come before receiving the Holy Eucharist. Now, I don't require proof of Baptism at the altar rail, but I cannot communicate someone I know is not baptized. However, I am also willing to interrupt the service and Baptize on the spot. That opportunity has never presented itself, but I would do so with great joy!
Baptism and Eucharist are inextricably connected, and I can make no sense of one without the other. It is for that reason that I encourage parents not to excommunicate their baptized children by denying them communion until "they're old enough to understand". As if any of us really understands!
Sara Renfro @sbrenfro -”14:17 They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish." - NRSV does not say "fishes"
Featured Musician - Heatherlyn, “When I Dream” from her album Storydwelling. More of her music at heatherlynmusic.com. Follow her @heatherlynmusic
Our theme music is Misirlou by Dick Dale and the Del Tones and our closing music is “Oh No” by Paul & Storm.
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