in defense of thomas, no doubt

eight days after easter sunday has come, since at least as early as the sixth century, comes “thomas sunday.” then is read the gospel which says, “thomas, called the twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when jesus came. when the disciples said, ‘we have seen the lord,’ he answered, ‘unless i see the holes that the nails made in his hands, and can put my fingers in the holes they have made, and unless i can put my hand into his side, i refuse to believe.’ eight days later the disciples were in the house again. . . . jesus came in . . . . then he said to thomas, ‘put your finger here; look, here are my hands. give me your hand; put it into my side. soubt no longer, but believe.’ thomas replied, ‘my lord and my god.’” (john 20:24-2, jerusalem bible): “doubting thomas.”



although matthew’s gospel records that even forty days after the resurrection, at jesus’ ascension, “some doubted” (28:17), this sunday thomas’ doubt will be spotlighted. In many hundreds of pulpits, we will be reminded, “happy are they who have not seen yet believe.” (john 20:29)



in what do we who “have not seen” believe? it is the witness of thomas’ insistence on actually touching the physical body of our risen lord (along with luke’s homely inclusion of jesus' question, “have you anything to eat?”—a ghost perceivably could have been lying [24:41]) that establishes the certainty that the resurrection was indeed physical.



there are always those who want to reduce the resurrection to “a spiritual event,” or to suggest that the disciples were having some sort of mass hallucination. this idea is very much alive today among those who talk about “christ consciousness,” or who say “we are not religious, we are spiritual.” biblical christianity is always more than spiritual. the creed merely expresses the teaching of the psalms, the gospels, the letter to the hebrews and the first letter of peter: “we believe in the resurrection of the body.”



death is the separation of the soul from the body. the life in the world to come is the reunion of souls and bodies. the souls of the faithful underneath the heavenly altar in the revelation to john (6:9-10) cry out “how long?” waiting for their bodies!



this allows for true religion. religion literally means to rebind together things that are or have become separated. the reconciliation of god and mankind; the union of hebrew and greek, of male and female, of slave and free, are not merely spiritual events. nor is what we usually call morality merely a spiritual matter. james wrote of this when he said, “pure, unspoiled religion, in the eyes of god our father is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows when they need it, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world” (1:27).



it is his insistence on touching the lord’s wounds that allows dear thomas to recognize jesus as both lord, and god, and that founds our religion, in which we can offer ourselves, our souls and bodies, as a living sacrifice.

resurrection and forgiveness

before the resurrection, jesus sent out the twelve (luke 9:1-2)and the seventy-two luke 10:1) to heal and to proclaim the good news of the kingdom. but he did not send them to forgive sins. this he did, and was condemned for it. (mark 2:1-12)

but after the resurrection, all is changed. consider this passage from john's gospel:

"in the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the jews. jesus came and stood among them. he said to them, 'peace be with you,' and showed them his hands and his side. the disciples were filled with joy when they saw the lord, and he said to them again, 'peace be with you.
'as the father sent me,
so i am sending you.'

"after saying this he breathed on them and said:
'receive the holy spirit.
for those whose sins you forgive,
they are forgiven;
for those whose sins you retain,
they are retained.'" (20:19-23)

(there are those who find only two sacraments ordained by our lord, and who reject the church's ministry to forgive sins. i don't understand how they read this passage.)

it is remarkable and amazing that the first thing jesus does when he rejoins the disciples is to send them to forgive sins. this is of course quite in keeping with john's understanding of the mission of christ jesus, as it was with paul's understanding: "this is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received,
that christ jesus came into the world to save sinners." ( 1 timothy 1:15).

it is amazing because we are so often concerned with everything else: hospitals and potluck suppers and new and bigger organs. we are often just plain embarassed that there are sins and that we are called to forgive them.

it is remarkable because it is the first thing jesus does after the resurrection. before the crucifixion it was not possible. but now it is. this is what jesus underwent the agony of the scourging and crucifixion and descent into hell for: to save sinners. and just as the father sent him, so he sends those who follow him. to forget this only is to ignore the heart of the gospel.

Holy Thursday

the last time i was in los angeles, i spent a week off the expressways, enjoying the wonderful neighborhoods. unfortunately i was not there for maundy thursday.

alleluia! the lord is risen!

my absolute favourite paschal hymn is "the strive is over". and those of you who were with me in seattle to hear (bask in the glow of)desmond tutu will enjoy that at trinity cathedral in kansas city they have those fancy liturgical fly rods, too. alleluia!

is easter early this year? no, and it's only starting.

easter is the only holy day we have that is outside of regular, calendar, time. sometimes well-intended folk want to "set" the date of easter (usually as march 25, which is the traditional date of the crucifixion of our lord). but easter actually is dated within a cosmic understanding of time: it is the first sunday after the full moon after the spring equinox; it is within the time of the sun and of the moon, and of creation. it is the eighth day, the day as st. matthew says, "when all things are made new." (matthew 18:28, jerusalem bible) if you saw mel gibson's the passion of the christ, remember the scene in which jesus meets his mother as he carries his cross. "look, mother," he says, "i am making all things new.

all things. "from the beginning until now . . . all creation has been groaning in one great act of giving birth . . . ." (romans 8:22) the recreation has begun--the word matthew uses is palingenesis--literally a re-genesis. the new creation is not finished. as the writer to the hebrews said, "at present, it is true, we are not able to see that everything has been put under [jesus'] command, but we do see in jesus one who was for a short while made lower than the angels and is now crowned with glory and splendor because he submitted to death." (2:8-9) jesus has led us into the new creation, the promised land of the kingdom of god, the sabbath rest, but we are still like the children of israel who were led out of egypt into the promised land, through the jordan, by joshua. (jesus is of course the greek spelling of joshua.) we are still weak compared to what seem to be giants in the land. but, "the spirit, too, comes to help us in our weakness." (romans 8:26)

and so our easter celebration continues, not just the one sunday but through the great fifty days of the pentecost ("pentecost" means counting to fifty), until we are all filled with the holy spirit. (acts 2) the early church celebrated this fifty days as one continuous feast, singing alleluias each day, standing at prayer, reading the book of acts to remind them of their role in the birth of the new world. our fore-fathers and -mothers in the faith recognized that their salvation--our salvation--was accomplished by the entire work of christ: incarnation, death, burial, descent into hell, resurrection, ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of the father, and sending his holy spirit.

"with so many witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too, then, should throw off everything that hinders us, especially the sin that clings so easily, and keep running steadily in the race we have started. let us not lose sight of jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection; for the sake of the joy which is still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it, and from now on has taken his place at the right of god's throne." (hebrews 12:1-2)

the last of the first sabbaths: great and holy saturday

although many of you reading this blog almost certainly will have observed maundy thursday and good friday, and are looking forward to the great paschal celebration of the resurrection of our lord, i suspect fewer will note holy saturday. yet this day is as important in our salvation as any other of the triduum.

the eastern church has maintained it's observance of this day, and the western church is beginning to recover it, but i have heard little made of it in the west.

this is the day our lord, after his crucifixion took captivity captive, rested in the earth. as gregory of nazianzus (one of the paleo cappadocians) said, "what is not assumed is not redeemed." the struggle to understand the fullness of our great redemption came to be expressed as the fight against arianism. the orthodox church recognized the holy nature of this great sabbath, in which our incarnate lord rested from finishing the new creation even as his father rested from finishing the first creation.

we imply this in the apostles' creed when we say "he descended to the dead" in the newer translations which avoid what to us modern folks an incomprehensability in the older translaton: "he descended into hell."

i cannot recommend too highly that we, too, take this as a day of profound rest, and use the holy saturday office to rejoice in the magnificence of our salvation.

good friday

i was hoping to find a good rendition of psalm 22* to post. failing that, i found a wonderful (i.m.h.o.) meditation on good friday from parsifal.




*(My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? *
and are so far from my cry
and from the words of my distress?

2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer; *
by night as well, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are the Holy One, *
enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

4 Our forefathers put their trust in you; *
they trusted, and you delivered them.

5 They cried out to you and were delivered; *
they trusted in you and were not put to shame.

6 But as for me, I am a worm and no man, *
scorned by all and despised by the people.

7 All who see me laugh me to scorn; *
they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,

8 "He trusted in the LORD; let him deliver him; *
let him rescue him, if he delights in him."

9 Yet you are he who took me out of the womb, *
and kept me safe upon my mother's breast.

10 I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born; *
you were my God when I was still in my
mother's womb.

11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near, *
and there is none to help.

12 Many young bulls encircle me; *
strong bulls of Bashan surround me.

13 They open wide their jaws at me, *
like a ravening and a roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water;
all my bones are out of joint; *
my heart within my breast is melting wax.

15 My mouth is dried out like a pot-sherd;
my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; *
and you have laid me in the dust of the grave.

16 Packs of dogs close me in,
and gangs of evildoers circle around me; *
they pierce my hands and my feet;
I can count all my bones.

17 They stare and gloat over me; *
they divide my garments among them;
they cast lots for my clothing.

18 Be not far away, O LORD; *
you are my strength; hasten to help me.

19 Save me from the sword, *
my life from the power of the dog.

20 Save me from the lion's mouth, *
my wretched body from the horns of wild bulls.

21 I will declare your Name to my brethren; *
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.


22 Praise the LORD, you that fear him; *
stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel;
all you of Jacob's line, give glory.

23 For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;
neither does he hide his face from them; *
but when they cry to him he hears them.

24 My praise is of him in the great assembly; *
I will perform my vows in the presence of those who
worship him.

25 The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
and those who seek the LORD shall praise him: *
"May your heart live for ever!"

26 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to
the LORD, *
and all the families of the nations bow before him.

27 For kingship belongs to the LORD; *
he rules over the nations.

28 To him alone all who sleep in the earth bow down
in worship; *
all who go down to the dust fall before him.

29 My soul shall live for him;
my descendants shall serve him; *
they shall be known as the LORD'S for ever.

30 They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn *
the saving deeds that he has done.)

the psalms in holy week

in 1549 thomas cramner, archbishop of canterbury, published "A Table for the Ordre of the Psalmes, To Be Sayed at Matins and Evensong." since then most churches have used the psalms more selectively, with psalms specifically appointed for holy week and easter. i am rather old-fashioned, so i thought that this year i would see how cramner's table of psalms fell out for these days. looking at the psalms with the understanding that they are the prayers of the messiah, prayed by the church, his body on earth, i find the ones that come this week quite wonderful and amazing.

these are the psalms for each day, maundy thursday through easter sunday:

maundy thursday morning, 102, 103; evening 104;
good friday morning, 105; evening, 106;
holy saturday morning, 107; evening, 108, 109;
easter sunday morning, 110, 111, 112, 113; evening 114, 115.

on maundy thursday morning we pray:

"rise, take pity on zion!--
the hour has come to have mercy on her,
the hour has come . . . "(102:13)

"bless the lord, my soul,
bless his holy name, all that is in me! . . .
no less than the height of heaven over earth
is the greatness of his love for those who fear him;
he takes our sins farther away
than the east is from the west." (103:1, 11-12)

and in the evening, as we prepare to commemorate the beginning of the new creation, we sing that great hymn of all creation in psalm 104, praying these words on the night jesus gave us the eucharist:

"all creation depends on you
to feed them throughout the year:
you provide the food they eat,
with generous hand you satisfy their hunger." (vv.27-28)

good friday gives us psalm 105 in the morning and 106 in the evening, great hymns that recount the holy one's acts in delivering israel from egypt and leading them, despite their continuing sins, through the desert into the promised land. their sins continue and they were led again into captivity.

"time and again he rescued them,
but they went on defying him deliberately
and plunged deeper into wickedness;
even so, he took pity on their distress,
each time he heard them calling." (106:47-48)

holy saturday morning continues "salvation history," ending with these wonderful words on the day we remember that our lord "was buried and descended into hell:"

"but now, he lifts the needy out of their misery,
and gives them a flock of new families;
at the sight of which, upright hearts rejoice
and wickedness must hold its tongue.

"if you are wise, study these things
and realize how the holy one shows his love." (107:41-43)

holy saturday evening gives us two songs, with great contrast. psalm 108 is all hopefulness and trust as we look to easter morning:
"my heart is ready, god!
--i mean to sing and play.
awake, my muse,
awake lyre and harp,
i mean to wake the dawn." (vv.1-2)

but psalm 109 reminds us of the price of our hope, telling the curses taken on by christ as he "became sin" for us:

"may no one be left to show him kindness." (v. 12)

then come the joyous psalms for easter morning, as we sing to the lord,

"royal dignity was yours from the day you were born." (110:3)
"alleluia . . . alleluia . . . alleluia." (111:1, 112:1, 113:1)

and our alleluia continues in the evening with psalms 114 and 115. all of creation, sea and mountain, earth and river, praising the holy one (psalm 114) as do we when with christ we are raised to new life:

"the dead cannot praise the holy one,
they have gone down to silence;
but we, the living, bless the beloved
henceforth and ever more." (115:17-18)

alleluia indeed!

koan time is running short

it is tempting to say something about the foursquare nature of the inner court of the vision of the temple in ezekiel (ch.40:47) and compare that to the quadralateral as somehow being mystically related to each other. (well, i guess i did say it, didn't it?) they do seem related to me, in that i find the "sides" of the chicago-lambeth quadrilateral to be authentic parts of the new temple which we are called to be, a temple of living stones, even if i do recognize that it is difficult for us to agree on their meaning or implementation.

but i do trust the promise in ezekiel 36:26: "i shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; i shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead." and i trust the prophecy of the dry bones in the thirty-seventh chapter. both of these reassuring passages occur after the wide-spread condemnation of both israel and the other nations, and before the description of the rebuilt temple.

another way of understanding the unity of the church is found in the 1916 discipline of the methodist episcopal church:

"the methodist episcopal church has always believed that the only infallible proof of the legitimacy of any branch of the christian church is its ability to seek and to save the lost, and to disseminate the pentecostal spirit and life." (new york: methodist book concern, 1916, p. 20)

and as roland allen so forcefully reminds us, the measure of the authenticity of the church in the book of acts was that "the holy spirit came down on all . . . ." (acts 10:44)

one of the many scary things that happens to ezekiel is that "the spirit lifted . . . up and took" him (2:14). almost certainly the main hindrance to our recognizing the oneness of the body of christ, his church, is the fear that if we are open to the wonder of the thing the holy spirit will lift us up and take us. we are comfortable where we are. why should we want to live in the kingdom of god?

palm sunday: the entry into jerusalem

anna was with us yesterday evening for the eucharist. not just the prophetess anna of luke's gospel, who stayed in the temple to recognize the child messiah. she of course is always there, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, whenever the eucharist is celebrated. but last night also we had anna a two-year old, who was about as two-years-old as it gets, making demands of us adults because she has just begun to be able to make demands, the way we who are old enough to know better sometimes make demands of god; making joyful noises because they are joyful; and sometimes singing the hymns and texts of the liturgy.

the reading was the entrance into jerusalem from the gospel according to st. matthew:

"when they were near jerusalem and had come to bethphage on the mount of olives, then jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, 'go to the village facing you, and you will at once find a tethered donkey and a colt with her. untie them and bring them to me. if anyone says anything to you, you are to say, "the master needs them and will send them back at once."' this was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet: say to the daughter of zion: look, your king is approaching, humble and riding on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. so the disciples went and did as jesus had told them. they brought the donkey and the colt, then they laid their cloaks on their backs and he took his seat on them. great crowds of people spread their cloaks on the road, while others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in his path. the crowds who went in front of him and those who followed were all shouting:

"hosanna to the son of david! blessed is he who is coming in the name of the lord!"

and when he entered jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil as people asked, 'who is this?' and the crowds answered, 'this is the prophet jesus from nazareth in galilee.'

jesus then went into the temple and drove out all those who were selling and buying there; he upset the tables of the money-changers and the seats of the dove-sellers.
he said to them, 'according to scripture, my house will be called a house of prayer; but you are turning it into a bandits' there were also blind and lame people who came to him in the temple, and he cured them. at the sight of the wonderful things he did and of the children shouting, 'hosanna to the son of david' in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes were indignant and said to him, 'Do you hear what they are saying?' jesus answered, 'yes. Have you never read this: By the mouths of children, babes in arms, you have made sure of praise?'" (njb)

this passage recalls another story from matthew, which we were reading less than three months ago: the story of the earlier herod's attempt to eliminate the new-born king by killing all the male children less than two years old (matthew 2:16), a story remembered in the beautiful coventry carol.

but herod had failed, and the children are here to remind us of his failure, a reminder also of matthew's literary prowess. it is the children who once again are annoying those in power, the children are central to they hymn we sing each year on palm sunday: "all glory, laud and honor, to thee redeemer king, to whom the lips of children make sweet hosannas ring." no one's hossana's were sweeter than anna's.

palm sunday and holy week: tourist or pilgrim?

tomorrow is palm sunday, the beginning of "holy week," and for many christians a time of great business. there are more readings that i can begin to comment on, but i will direct you to the excellent site textweek for a guide.

what i would like to comment on is some of the origins of this busy time, and to suggest how we might use it. there seem to be two main sources of the crammed-packed "holy week"--well, three, if we consider the original celebration of the pascha (in english, easter). the earliest church celebrated the passover of our lord, the three days from "maundy thursday" to "the first day of the week, the day of the resurrection," as one great feast, recognizing that we cannot sort out any one part of the work of the christ as more important or independent of the others. death, burial, descent into hell, resurrection, they're all together one great event.

then especially after the ending of the persecution of the church, the week before the vigil became a sort of cram week for catechumens. so in addition to the events of the three days (the triduum), there were added special readings for each of the other days from "palm sunday" on.

then jerusalem was rebuilt splendidly under the auspices of the emperors, and "holy week" became the time for pilgrimages to the holy sites. what we know of the early events today comes mostly from the writings of egeria, a fourth century spanish abbess who described the events. there were four churches, with services spread between them, in addition to the processions of palm sunday and good friday through the streets of the city. the martyrium marked golgotha, where our lord as crucified. the eleona as at the mount of olives where he had taught. the imbomon was at the place of his ascension, and the anastasis marked the tomb, the site of his resurrection. it was not long before churches, first in spain, then throughout the empire, began to try to reproduce as much of the jerusalem events as they could.

we still try to reproduce those events, with results ranging from magnificent (i would recommend, for instance, holy week at st. mark's cathedral in seattle, to pitiful, at places i won't mention.) but i will suggest that to try to pack all of the activities possible into a week when most of us are already too busy for our souls tends to make holy week a tourist trap rather than a pilgrimage.

so, i recommend taking the week slowly, choosing some particular part for meditation and exploration. if the time is new to you, you might start with the palm sunday procession, and pay particular attention to its texts and hymnody. (the hymn "all glory laud and honor" is, according to eric werner in the sacred bridge, perhaps the oldest melody used by the christian church, originating in the jewish temple liturgy for the feast of tabernacles.)

each year, one can add to one's understanding, if the lord delay his return. if not, we will be singing "all glory laud and honor" in a different setting.

difficulties with a modest proposal, 4: the historic episcopate

both the american episcopal church and the lambeth conference agreed on the fourth "lateral":
"the historic episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of god into the unity of his church."

as bernhard w. anderson said of this part of the quadralateral it is the "one side more lateral than the others." (in j. robert wright, ed. quadralateral at one hundred [cincinnatti, ohio: forward movement publications, 1988], pp. 55-60). part of what makes this statement so difficult is "the historic episcopate." if the american and world-wide bishops had appealed to the "biblical episcopate," their position would probably have strengthened over the past century as the discoveries of the dead sea scrolls, for instance, have made clear that the idea of episcopate which the church in the second and third century had for the word episcopos was current in the century or so before christ.

but the "historical episcopate" tends to call up ideas of lines of men in strange hats processing into marble halls. of course one could as well suggest the men who came to the council of nicea with their scars and ragged clothes from the persecutions which they did not know were over, mostly.

the "historic episcopate" also tends to call up the idea of large dioceses, as much political organizations as ecclesiastical.

into my lent, as i struggle with the koan of ezekiel and his vision of the rebuilding of the temple for "nations and peoples called of god into the unity of his church," comes the little bombshell of roland allen, with his ideas for a restoration of the methods of the early church when the presbyterate were literally the elders of the local church, and the episcopos was the overseer of a local church as well. of course. so simple. so free from the trappings of "taking care for what you wear." allen found it very unlike that his bishops (the anglican bishops of the 20's and 30's of the twentieth century) would ever ordain such bishops, but he did hope they might at least ordain local presbyters.

but now, nearly a century since allen was a missionary in china, perhaps the time has come to encourage such a confidence in the holy spirit to do what jesus has promised:

"in all truth i tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as i do myself, and will perform even greater works, because i am going to the father. whatever you ask in my name i will do, so that the father may be glorified in the son. if you ask me anything in my name, i will do it. if you love me you will keep my commandments. i shall ask the father, and he will give you another paraclete to be with you for ever, the spirit of truth whom the world can never accept since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you. i shall not leave you orphans; I shall come to you. in a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see that i live and you also will live. on that day you will know that i am in my father and you in me and i in you." (john 14:12-20 njb)

who are "we"? (wilco answers)

a week or so ago i tried to suggest to a friend that "we"--the "good people" who say we are opposed to the war in iraq but who accept the benefits of it, such as its support of the bubble of the u.s. economy--are in fact supporting the war with our silence. he loudly said not to include him in that "we."

perhaps wilco says it more eloquently than i.

the fifth sunday in lent: lazarus

the calling of lazarus from the tomb, the unbinding of the dead man, is absolutely central to the gospel according to john, and to much of how followers of christ understood his accomplishment as the messiah.

the lectionary reading, john 11:1-44 or 45, tells the story, and it is a wonderful story. but to see how important this story is we must look also at all of chapter 11 and at least the first eight verses of chapter 12.

so, first, the story: jesus, on "the far side of the jordan [from jerusalem] . . . in the district where john had been baptizing" (john 10:40) receives a message that his friend, "the man he loves," is sick. at this point i can do no better than to quote john, the language of this passage is so packed:

"on receiving the message, jesus said, 'this sickness will not end in death, but it is for god's glory so that through it the son of god may be glorified.'

jesus loved martha and her sister and lazarus, yet when he heard that he was ill he stayed where he was for two more days
before saying to the disciples, 'let us go back to judaea.'
The disciples said, 'rabbi, it is not long since the jews were trying to stone you; are you going back there again?'

jesus replied:
'are there not twelve hours in the day?
no one who walks in the daytime stumbles,
having the light of this world to see by;
anyone who walks around at night stumbles,
having no light as a guide.'

he said that and then added, 'our friend lazarus is at rest; I am going to wake him.' the disciples said to him, 'lord, if he is at rest he will be saved.' jesus was speaking of the death of lazarus, but they thought that by 'rest' he meant 'sleep'; so jesus put it plainly, 'lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. but let us go to him.' then thomas-known as the twin-said to the other disciples, 'let us also go to die with him.'" (njb)

jesus, although he clearly loves this little bethanite family, does not act primarily from his own emotions, but for god's glory. nor it is an abstract glorification of god or the son of god that is his motive. jesus acts as he does "because now you will believe." (v.15) even as the father gives his son to death for the salvation of the world, so the son gives his friend to death for his followers' belief in that salvation. eternal life does not come from the avoidance of death, but by passing through death. so thomas corrctly says, "let us also go to die with him."

"i am the resurrection.
if anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,
and whoever lives and believes in me
will never die." (vv.25-26)

jesus asks martha, "do you believe this?" "yes, lord, she said, "i believe that you are the christ, the son of god, the one who was to come into the world."(vv.26-27) when he asks that the stone be rolled away, martha says, "by now he will smell; this is the fourth day."(vv.39-40) jesus replies, "have i not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of god?"(v.40) then the act itself: to lazarus jesus cries, "in a loud voice, 'lazarus, here! come!"(v.43) the dead man comes out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth around his face. jesus said to them, 'unbind him, let him go free.'"(vv.43-44)

reading these words i cannot help but think of the binding of isaac. (genesis 22:1-18) we often read that story, with "a ram caught by its horns in a bush" (v.13) and leap the 2000 years from abraham in the twenty-second chapter of genesis to the nineteenth chapter of john's gospel, with the ultimate provision by the holy one of a sacrifice, doing so by belittling the 2000 years of history of abraham's children, who are sacrificed in the literal sense of the word: they are chosen to be a holy people, bound by torah to a way of life which often seems hardly to bless them at all, but which ultimately will bring salvation "for the nation [of israel]--and not for the nation only, but to gather together into unity the scattered people of god." (john 11:52)

the unbinding of lazarus, more dead even than abraham and sarah who were "as good as dead" (hebrews 11:12) both fulfilled the confidence abraham had "that god had the power even to raise the dead (hebrews 11:19) and transferred the role of blessing all nations (genesis 22:18)from the "descendants as many as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore" (genesis 21:17)to the one of abraham's sons who is "of the same order as melchizedek" (hebrews 7:11) and as the author of the letter to the hebrews so clearly understands, ". . . any change in the priesthood must mean a change in the law as well." (hebrews 11:12)

the unbinding of lazarus sets more than one dead man free.

it also sets in motion the sentence jesus had alluded to in the third chapter of john ("no one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe in him is condemned already"[v. 18]) and which he announces as a present event in the twelth chapter ("now is sentence being passed on this world; now the prince of this world is to be overthrown."[v.31])

following the unbinding of lazarus the jews who see the event are clearly divided: "many . . . believed in him, but some went to tell the pharisees what jesus had done." (john 11:45-46) the chief priests and the pharisees decide jesus must be put to death.

but six days before the passover, mary of bethany, having seen the glory of god in jesus' unbinding of her brother, will anoint jesus, marking him finally, just before his death, as the literal messiah, the christ, the anointed one of israel. (john 12:1-4)

difficulties with a modest proposal, 3: the two sacraments

remember--it's been a while since i've posted about this--the third side of the chicago quadralateral:

"the two sacraments--baptism and the supper of the lord--ministered with
unfailing use of christ's words of institution and of the elements ordained by him."

the anglican bishops meeting at lambeth palace in 1888 made no change in this wording in their resolution, as they had done with the first two statements.

laying aside the recognition of more sacraments by many parts of the church--seven by the romans, for instance, twelve in the church of the east--there remains problems even with these simple words. my own malabar rite, using the anaphora of sts. addai and mari, does not contain the "words of institution," and it has been accepted as "valid" by at least the roman church, and i should add that i have often celebrated that rite in episcopal churches in at least three dioceses.

and, even more potentially heretical, i have "received" communion--i use that word not because it really reflects my own eucharistic theology but because it does point to the part of the eucharist i am talking about now--in churches whose pastors were not ordained in apostolic succession as recognized by my own lineage, nor who seemed to use any eucharistic prayer. there was bread. there was wine. we commumed as the body of christ.

oh. i forgot to mention something. there was grape juice.

and in the case of baptism, there are of course many instances of "weird" baptisms in the book of the acts of the apostles. (see, for example, acts 18:25; 19:3)

and there are of course wide disagreements about what constitutes the "element" instituted by jesus for baptism. although most churches consider the desired "element" to be running water sufficient for immersion, we often come short of what might be desired.

so, i am wondering, where am i going with this? but, remember, this is part of my lenten koan. i still have a two and a half weeks to solve it.

the fourth sunday in lent: the cure of the man born blind

the gospel for this sunday is a long one, the ninth chapter of the gospel according to john, and much happens in it. the actual "cure" part of the story is short, and almost incidental to jesus' answer to a question of his disciples about the man, "'rabbit, who sinned, this man or his parents for him to have been born blind?' 'neither he nor his parents sinned,' jesus answered, 'he was born blind so that the works of god might be displayed in him.'" (vv.2-3)

jesus then does something simple but powerful, both in action and in symbol. after saying "i am the light of the world," he makes a bit of mud with his spittle and the dust, rubs it on the man's eyes, and tells him to wash at the pool of siloam (where the water was drawn for the feast of tabernacles, itself a great light festival).

the man obeys jesus, and he can see. what follows is a sort of turning point in the gospels of lent, for once again the work of the messiah is surprising, but to this surprise, which the pharisees--for which read the religious leaders of the first church of what every brand you like best--do not even admit. instead, after initial and not surprising incredulity, they become comdemnatory. whatever this whoever is doing, it is wrong. he must be corrected. next sunday we will hear the story of an even greater miracle, the raising of lazarus, and the religious leaders will be determined to kill jesus.

however, i want to take a little time to reflect on the man born blind, the disciples' question about sin, and how i find myself in his story. in the midst of the doubts and questions about the rumoured miracle, when people were doubting the identity of the former beggar with his sight restored. "the man himself said, 'i am the man.'" (v. 9

and i am the man, not born blind so much as born in blindness.

the situation is much as it is described in psalm 51, verse five of which is translated by miles coverdale as,
"behold, i was shapen in wickedness,
and in sin hath my mother conceived me."

this does not mean that i was a pre-natal transgressor, nor that my mother committed a sinful act in my conception. rather it recognizes that the environment in which my life started was sinful. indeed how could it be otherwise? i was conceived in san diego at the end of a war waged by the civilized nations of the world against all that might be called civilization, ended by the use of the most devastating weapon yet devised by civilized man, the product of an endeavor blasphemously called the trinity project. this is the character of the world in which i blindly beg.

yet, by the grace of god, i do manage, sometimes, to see. sometimes i recognize that the "word is a lamp unto my feet" (psalm 119:105), that "the word was the true light that enlightens all men." (john 1:9) my problem, my frustration, is that i recognize the light best only when it "shines in the dark." (john 1:5) that is, when i am in my little cell, with the darkness of night all around me, or with the morning stars singing together, calling me to awake then dawn, then i think i see. but when i go into the big world, even the little big world of basin park in eureka springs, my sight becomes fuzzy. i am like mark's blind man of bethsaida: "i see men as trees, walking." (mark 8:22)

pray for me, my brothers and sisters, that i may see those men and those women in basin park as our lord, hungry or thirsty, a stranger or naked, sick or inprisoned, and not fail to come to their help. (matthew 25:44) pray that i need not fear jesus' final words in this sunday's gospel:

"blind? if you were,
you would not be guilty,
but since you say, 'we see,'
your guilt remains." (john 9:41)