Lectionary for May 26, 2024
The Holy Trinity and First Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29;
Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17
Have you ever read your Bible and come to something that just doesn’t make sense or that makes you mad? Frequently several of the violent images in the psalms, the akedah, Japheth’s rash promise, or the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira just feel like they shouldn’t be in Scripture, right?
Biblical poet Jessica Jacob (Unalone, 2024) insists that the act of reading a text is to wrestle with it and, like Jacob, not let it go until it blesses us (Genesis 32:26) and gives us what it must teach us. There is a great blessing in experiencing confusion, disquiet and frustration because, if we persevere, we can come to see the texts rightly and receive the lessons (which are often difficult) they have to teach us. The lectionary writings this week depict processes of wrestling with holy words and coming to see rightly.
When Nicodemus came to Jesus, he didn’t need to be converted. He already knew that Jesus had come from God because of the many signs that had been performed. Jesus, however, wanted Nicodemus to see his mission rightly, to know that he was bringing the kingdom of heaven as a spiritual reality through the work of the Spirit. Jesus wasn’t trying to inaugurate a new political kingdom, as the other kingdoms of the earth. He sought to welcome people to be born again (and again, and again) to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
Nicodemus was profoundly confused by what Jesus said. How can a person reenter his mother’s womb to be born again? How can someone born of the Spirit move around as the wind? This teacher of Israel didn’t see Jesus rightly, at least not fully. Jesus insisted that he would be lifted up, as the bronze serpent, to save people from death because of God’s love and grace. Nicodemus eventually came to see that Jesus would die in order to save the world from death. He even prepared Jesus’ body for burial when Jesus’ own male disciples fled (John 19:39).
Isaiah had to see that God is motivated by love to save the people, not destroy them (us) because of sin.
At the beginning of Isaiah’s prophetic career, he was captured in a vision and brought to God’s heavenly throne room. There he beheld the heavenly hosts singing the trihagion and “knew” for certain that he would soon die. Exodus 33:20 proclaims that no one may see God and live. Yet, Eve and Adam, Hagar, Abraham and Moses himself spoke with God and beheld the divine. God brought Isaiah to the heavenly court to save people and preserve life, not to cause death and destruction. Isaiah did not see God rightly.
In the face of God’s holy image, Isaiah—and not anyone else—brought up his sin problem. Isaiah was a man of unclean lips. To assuage his guilt, an angel brought a coal from the heavenly altar (did you know that heaven hosts eternal worship services?) and touched it to Isaiah’s lips, removing his sin. Only after Isaiah had heard the pronouncement of the removal of his guilt could he hear the salvific mission that God had planned for him. Who would bring words of warning to lead to repentance and life to Israel? Only once Isaiah saw God rightly—loving and wishing to pardon the people—and saw himself rightly—capable of proclaiming God’s call to choose life—could he respond to God’s call.
The psalmist challenges us to see that God’s might is displayed not only in the toppling of empire but also in accompanying the mother in her birth-giving.
The psalmist adjures heavenly beings to bring the Lord glory and strength and then lists several reasons why they should. God’s creating voice echoes across the waters. God’s might causes the mountains to quake. God’s voice causes the proud cedars of Lebanon to splinter. The wilderness places shake at God’s voice.
God is mighty, to be sure, but if this is all we see and know about God, we still don’t see God rightly. God’s voice makes “the deer give birth and strips the forests bare” (Psalm 29:9; New American Standard Bible). God’s voice, which causes the earth to quake, also acts as a midwife to the wild, unthreatening deer. God’s holiness is not only shown in potential for disruption and power but also is care and support for birth and growth. Seeing God rightly means holding on to all that God reveals Godself to be, not just our preferred images or theologies.
Nicodemus had to see that God is motivated by love to inaugurate the peaceful kingdom of heaven. Isaiah had to see that God is motivated by love to save the people, not destroy them (us) because of sin. The psalmist challenges us to see that God’s might is displayed not only in the toppling of empire but also in accompanying the mother in her birth-giving. At the beginning of this ordinary time, let us commit to see God rightly, as God continues self-revelation to us.
