1 Peter 3:18-22

Lent 1 - Year B

Facing wild beasts in the wilderness, in addition to the usual trials and testings that come to reveal where we have placed our meaning-of-life, leads us to tense up and over-function. These self-protective functions become set around us until we are imprisoned.

A part of the preaching function is that of reminding us that we can go a different way than we have come. An image of the chaos at creation's dawn that can come back to haunt at any moment with memories of floods past and fears of floods to come can be transformed into the very water that cleanses and brings forward expectations of finding that same refreshment anywhere and everywhere along the way.

Our very prisons can become starting places for freedom. We recognize we are powerless and let go self-imposed boundaries for the experience of larger living.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/march2003.html

 

 

An interesting debate among the ancient authorities - Did Jesus "die" or "suffer" for "you" or for "us"?

Verse 18 brings us these variants. Is there really any difference or does it make a world of difference which combination you are drawn to. Supposedly, different personality types will be drawn to either the dying or the suffering image and to the question of being included in or whether this is for others.

If you draw the intersection of a vertical and a horizontal line to set up four quadrants, Put "suffer" at the left and "die" at the right; place "us" above and "you" below. Where would you locate yourself? Would you put yourself 90% toward "die" and 85% toward "you"? How about 75% "suffer" and 92% "us"? Some other combination? How, then, do you see Progressive Christianity in these terms and how would this group of people relate to folks who located themselves in an opposite direction?

So, does it make a difference which translation you read or which authority you follow? And that difference is what?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/march2003.html

 

 

Two important covenants that are worth fasting toward are a good conscience and presence with others.

Can you imagine that your fasting will send you to places where folks have found themselves frozen in relationship to the energy of the universe? Whatever was the stimulus for being absent from a growing vitality, folks have given up on a changed or better future. When we fast we are to move into solidarity alongside them, and to bring the warmth of steadfast love, even to the unlikeable, that we might truly feast together. [Dante's cold is the image here for those who had already died.]

Can you imagine that our fasting will not only restore a right relationship with creation, but with your own best gifts and intentions? Whatever has slid into place to make us slippery in accountability needs to be revealed and re-chosen against. When we fast we are to do so that our health be enhanced - physical health, mental health, emotional health, relational health, to mention a few - by linking our intentions with our actions [thus defining a good conscience].

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/march2006.html

 

 

Compare and contrast: "suffered for sins once for all" and "made alive in the spirit."

These two phrases may have something to do with fasting from and fasting toward. Some will find themselves drawn toward one or the other. Others will go a third way of being drawn toward both. Doing this reflecting will help us clarify our natural inclinations. Some tend to focus on the past, on suffering, on absolutes. Some tend to focus on the future, on growth, on possibilities. Generally we call them glass half-empty or half-full folks. Some tend to focus lightly on the poles and to gaze gently at the ambiguity of passing moments and persistent motifs.

If this reflection is not so much about Jesus as it is about you, how does that affect your Lenten expectations?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/march2006.html

 

 

1 Peter 3:18-22
Genesis 9:8-17
Psalm 25:1-10
Mark 1:9-15

For many the radio stimulates the imagination more than does television. This is in part the way we receive the two senses. Mark's silence on the temptations brings more possibilities to mind than the traditional three in Matthew and Luke. Mark also reminds us that this was not Jesus and Satan, mano a mano, but Jesus was attended by angels even during temptation (not just to soothe afterward).

If so attended, what does this do to the hunger and jumping off temptations mentioned elsewhere?

A connection with angels connects us with time beyond ourselves (you may want to refresh your reading of some of Madeline L'Engle's supposed children's books - her Wrinkle in Time series).

If we are connected beyond one current time, we might begin to wonder about Christ suffering once and salvation through water (Noah and baptism) as singular events.

During Lent we may wonder about what it means to be a sign of reconciliation between G*D and creation. Whether that is a one-time sign or repeated, it is a lifting of soul - ours and many. One sign is not shying away from temptations that we might slyly defeat them through avoidance, getting overly busy with something else, or nit-picking the language of the temptation.

- - -

it has been said
we are built to buffer bad news
defense mechanisms are a gift from God

trying to make bad news Not True
requires a special attitude
this-isn't-happening-to-me

now comes an intriguing question
can even this situation be turned around?
facing it is a first step to saying Yes

[this prayer fragment is based on a bit of Unbinding the Gospel, pages 24-25]

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html

 

This passage would benefit from an earlier start – either verse 8 or 13, take your pick.

Starting earlier gives a much better context for talking about suffering. This sets it in the context of a blessing opportunity when mean and nasty things occur (intended and unintended). Otherwise we tend to get into theological and Christological debates with much sound and fury. It is to this blessing business we are called and suffering is a subpoint under that.

It is the blessing opportunity rather than the opportunity to suffer that allows us to engage with gentleness and reverence rather than grouchy retribution.

Start earlier - the lection committee will never know and if they do find out, they may change their plan.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html

 

 

Who will harm you when you are about doing good?

Well, more than you would think. Everyone with a conscious or unconscious investment in things staying the way they are, because doing good means changing a situation in which “not good” has been operating.

What, then, makes it worthwhile to proceed apace and against a hurtful status quo? Is an understanding of blessedness sufficient? This is a baptismal, transfigurational blessing that brings repentance for our participation in whatever hurt is happening and a commitment to see a reconciliation, a “trip to Jerusalem”, through.

There are apparently two different ways of moving ahead. One way is that of non-violence, proceeding with “gentleness and reverence”. The other way is not, implied in the need to make such an instruction. Our go-to position is to project ourselves as good, rather than to see ourselves as part of the problem and deciding to do what we can where we have the power to make a difference - with our way of operating.

Imagine spending a whole Lent in a quest for a conscience that recognizes and responds to “good”. It will probably take that long, at a minimum, to make a shift that can be seen on the outside and not just felt as an intention on the inside. A blessed Lent to you.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/02/1-peter-318-22.html