Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Lent 2 - Year A
Calling into existence the things that don't exist is a high calling. What is it we are interested in calling into existence? Is this something we want, desire, need, require?
Might it be that what we are after is more blessing -- blessing piled on blessing, overflowing all cups? If so, how might it be called? Would simply being a blessing call forth more?
This is a challenging question. To say, "No, it takes more than this", we deny the power of grace upon grace, unbidden and open to justification of the "ungodly". To simply say, "Yes, grace happens" is to risk taking our blessing for granted (both that received and that given) and turning it into technique.
So we need faith to undergird the impossible and work to forge a way where there was no way. And now we await the revealing of what has been gained by our faithful work of receiving and offering blessing.
This is a prodigiously prodigal process leading to inclusiveness. Enjoy it through the long-run without giving up on it in the short-run.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/february2005.html
Preemptive righteousness is imputed to each one. We are made that way. With or without works is not the issue because this is pre-opportunity to choose this work or that.
For Abraham this takes place before the sign of circumcision (for Jews). For Jesus it is before the sign of the cross (for Christians). For Mohammed it comes before the sign of the Koran (for Muslims). For Buddha it comes before the sign of the bodhi tree (for Buddhists). Everyone has something before their sign of meaning - a blessing of life.
Out of this blessing come choices. A snake made one, a woman made one, a man made one, a brother made one, a people made one, etc. We are still making choices to enhance or betray the precedence of life.
Are you able to catch a glimpse of the righteousness already present (whether visible in works or not) in yourself and others? If so, the blessings you have received are working their works in and through you. If not, life is not given to the dead and things that do not exist are not called to existence.
May we receive mercy for not enfleshing the seed of righteousness that has called us into existence from the dead to work the works available to us. May we receive courage to finally be about this joy.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/february2005.html
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Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
John 3:1-17
Can one be born again? It happens all the time.
Abram, Sarai, Lot, and more are born again through immigration. This is not an issue of legal or illegal. It is a call from G*D, a necessity. Abram ran a risk greater than deportation. He felt in danger of his life and felt this strongly enough to risk his relationship with Sarai.
Elijah was born again while hiding in a cave.
Moses found a birth canal through a burning bush.
The Psalmist found new birth with a song of trust and confidence.
Peter is reborn through questions of his love.
Saul is reborn Paul on his way to Damascus.
To think these folks had only the one rebirth is too limiting. I've had several, myself. What about you? Can you count the birth canals?
Even folks we have a most difficult time have had a new birth to get as far along as they have and we pray for more births for them. If we parallel this to forgiveness, as we pray for their rebirth, we pray for our own.
- - -
1 + 1 > 2
my current life plus
plus my rebirthed life
is more than the two
combined
I now also have
an anticipation
of yet another 1
even if I reach
70 * 7
there is more
for there is no end
of toil
of bookmaking
of steadfast love
of rebirthing forgiveness
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
"Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised?", questions Paul.
Is "belovedness", then, announced only on the baptized, or also on the unbaptized?
Paul, here, makes the argument of prevenient grace – even before anything there is call and response. Later we can call this preference for universal salvation a question of faith, but before anything it is an experience – an experience of belovedness.
In our compartmentalized approach to a liturgical year we get caught with a tradition of Transfiguration ending Epiphany rather than beginning Lent. Once we get over the versification of the Bible or the liturgicalizing of a year, we are free to travel where the spirit leads, whether from Ur to the Negeb or from baiter of the Way to the legalizer of grace.
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In light of the conclusion of this passage regarding a G*D who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist – we were traveling Sunday and saw a billboard that said, in large letters, "Nothing is too difficult for God." A beloved traveler in the car saw said sign and remarked, "Yes, 'Nothing' is 'too difficult' for God." This insight is the impetus for creation – that "nothing" was "too difficult". God had to start making stuff (creation) because "nothing" was too difficult. [Are you grinning yet?]
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
n today's Wisconsin and other struggles to make sense of an economy, a key is a definition of work. We have separated the benefit of personal physical work from cultural financial work. In so doing real work has become making private capital work for you rather than you working for communal capital. Making money becomes the end game, not developing care for self and neighbor.
Try substituting "money" for "works" in this passage and see how this works in today's world.
Now to one who has money, their return is not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to the one who, without money, trusts forces pulling us toward a new community....
Theories of job creation by money (tax and other benefits to the already rich and removal of organizing and other benefits to the present poor) is a promise as weak as that of "inheriting the world".
This passage reminds us to look for a light beyond the present and that journeying is not just a private matter. If we are about the business of calling into existence that which does not yet exist there are some important questions to be asked without being blinded by money in a money culture. We must be born from above the money fray. So, where are you putting your faith? - in a larger grace than profit and intended benefit to our (beyond my) descendents?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/03/romans-41-5-13-17.html
How ethereal is faith? Might it touch the stuff of life without being contaminated by law/works?
While Paul may be trying to make a case that faith is separate from and precedes works, his presentation has been received as a separation of the two. All that is creedally important is the form of the words recited. This is not about power as words are powerful and shape our behavior. It is, however, about being able to honestly engage creation (our own and that through us).
We have focused on one side of an internal argument about what is Jewish and what is Christian. This is like listening to Fox News and thinking you have a sense of what is really going on in the world. Everything gets filtered through only one lens. Even their brief forays into another’s vision is intentionally set in a context that makes it laughable and dismissible. Don’t doubt for a minute the structure of faith of Fox News. They will subvert every “work” to it. Lest there be any doubt, it is not just Fox News, we all do the same, just less consciously.
Back to this text, is this a more or less helpful response than Jesus’ to people like Nicodemus? Perhaps it is a toss-up? Would you prefer to deal with Jesus or Paul?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/03/romans-41-5-13-17.html