BibleWorm

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This week we’re reading the story of Joseph in Potiphar’s house, as told in Genesis 39:1-23. Joseph finds himself enslaved in Egypt in the household of an Egyptian official named Potiphar. While God prospers Potiphar, and all those around Joseph, Joseph’s own life seems to be on a downward trajectory, leading him first to be accused of sexual assault by Potiphar’s wife and then cast into jail by Potiphar himself. If this is what being prospered by God looks like, we wonder if it’s worth being prospered by God at all. At the same time, this text exposes much about the way the lives of vulnerable people are at risk due to the whims of powerful people, who feel entitled to their respect, their obedience, and even their bodies. While we can’t save Joseph from his situation, we recognize, perhaps we can intervene in the stories of the Josephs of the world today.  

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This week, we are reading one of our favorite Bible stories, and the source of some great power ballads in the Jewish world – Gen 12:1-9, the story of Avram being called to leave his land, his home, and go to the place God will show him.  Our eyes were drawn this year to the proverbial “division of responsibilities” God seems to have in mind for this adventure travel. What is God actually asking Avram to do, and when does Avram need to put aside all that striving energy and just let God do God’s thing? What if our whole job boils down to getting ourselves unstuck, and then trying to be a blessing in every situation where we find ourselves? 

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In this first episode of the new Narrative Lectionary year, we’re reading the story of God flooding the world as told in Genesis 6:5-22; 8:6-12; and 9:8-17. We struggle a bit with the fact that this year begins not with creation, as in other years, but with the destruction of creation. But as we read we realize that this story tells not only of destruction but also a movement within the very life of God, who goes from wanting to destroy imperfect humankind to wanting to be in relationship with us. We notice that God’s proclamation of this new covenant is expansive, including all humans and all animals in all generations of the earth, such that we can never encounter another creature, human or animal, that is not also in covenant relationship with God. What would happen to our lives, we wonder—both our prayer lives and our lives out in the world—if we could learn to think of others as belonging both to God and to ourselves?

This week we conclude our series on Revelation and Resistance with John’s vision of New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:1-7, 22-27, and 22:1-5. The text presents a moving depiction of God come to earth, dwelling among the people and wiping every tear from their eyes. In a renewed world with no death or suffering, humanity thrives beside the river of living water, eating from the tree of life, relieved from pain and suffering and death. While John envisions this New Jerusalem fulfilled in the future, he speaks its vision to Christians enduring the trials of life in the Roman Empire, providing not only a source of hope but also a vision of what a life with God might look like. Similarly, we think this vision might be a source of sustenance for us, as well, helping us appreciate the beauty that is already in our midst and giving us the strength to resist the power of the Empire for yet another day.

This week we are reading Revelation chapter 7, a vision that unfolds in the midst of the unsealing of seals and undoing of worlds as we have known them. It’s a vision that seems anchored in the past and the future simultaneously, a vision that evoked for us Ezekiel and Isaiah and Genesis and Kohelet and Exodus and also a also future time when whatever suffering the faithful have endured, they can stand together in their multitudes and praise the one true Source. It’s an image that, at the very least, can make the work of our time less lonely. 

This week we’re continuing our series on Revelation and Resistance with the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2:1-7 and 3:1-22. We note that most of the churches receive both praise and admonition from Jesus, celebrating what they have done well but warning them against their shortcomings. But we also notice that in these letters appearances can be deceiving. Those churches that appear poor and powerless are said to be wealthy and powerful in the kingdom of God, while those that appear to be wealthy and successful make Jesus want to puke. While Jesus is addressing the churches of Asia minor, the repeated phrase, “let those who can hear listen to what the Spirit is saying” suggests that these letters are meant for our communities, too. What would Jesus want to celebrate about our communities, we wonder, and what how might he critique us? How do we appear from the Empire’s perspective, and what might look like in God’s eyes?

This week we are reading Revelation 5 – the whole thing, which is only 14 powerful verses long. We encounter the image of a scroll covered with words that might change the world as we know it -  but it has been sealed tight, with nobody to open it. We encounter the Lamb, in a series of images that just make no sense – this lamb who is the lion, this lamb who stands as if slaughtered. This slaughtered lamb who ca

This week we’re continuing our series on Revelation and Resistance series with Revelation 13:1-18 and 17:1-6. We examine the grotesque images of the Beasts rising from land and sea as images of the Roman Empire, a misshapen, deceptive, and violent creature trapping people unknowingly in the worship of Satan. Then we turn our attention to Woman Babylon, the beautiful seductress whose goblet is filled with the blood of the saints. Having these images before us gives substance to our unknown fears, we think, making visible that which lurks at the edges of our consciousness. More than that, perhaps, these images invite us to unmask the beastliness and seduction of the Empire in our own day. How are we unwittingly seduced and coerced into the worship of violence?

Welcome to our summer series, Revelation and Resistance. This week we begin at the beginning, with Revelation 1:1-20, which sets the stage so beautifully for us and especially for me, who has never read Revelation before. We contemplate the “is-ness” of God – one that is beyond time as we know it – and hold all of the evocative images and sound metaphors like complex treasures. We relate to the pain of holding in your awareness both the world that is and the world as it should be. And we wonder at the awe and fear that will follow when the veil is finally pulled back. 

This week we conclude our special series on Disputing with God with the story of Jesus praying with his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane as told in Mark 14:32-42. We notice at least two disputes in this text, the first between Jesus, who is praying in anguish, and his disciples, who keep falling asleep. We ponder the human propensity toward avoidance in moments of impending crisis, whether by napping or by binge-watching Netflix, and we contrast it with Jesus’ command to “Stay awake!,” both here in the garden and as we await the inbreaking of the Kingdom of Heaven. The second conflict is more complicated, with Jesus protesting against the fate that God has set for him, asking God to “take this cup away from me.” We are comforted a bit that even Jesus faces moments of doubt when the times are daunting yet inspired by his commitment to following God’s will to face the dangers that lay ahead. Stay awake, y’all! This is a good one.