Money, money, money....

Our texts for this week deviate from the Lectionary slightly because I wanted to include a couple of readings from Exodus that aren't usually heard, but that I think are really significant as we continue to consider what it means for us to live together as covenant people: Exodus 35:4-9, 20-29 will be our main story, with a slight shout-out to Matthew 22:15-22. You can read them both here.

This week, through these stories we will be thinking about an aspect of life together that, let's face it, can get a bit awkward at time: money. I've thought a lot this week about why money can be such a difficult subject, why we all feel uncomfortable when it comes up, why--even though I 100% believe in what I am going to say on Sunday, in how we use our money as an important aspect of discipleship and as a theological act--writing this week's sermon was a knock-down drag-out struggle.

But to get your thoughts flowing, I wanted to offer up a couple of videos I came across this week on the subject of money, how we use it, and how we share it. If you receive the blog via email, you will have to go to the actual blog website to view these I believe.

The first is on wealth distribution in America--our perceptions about it, our dreams about it, and the reality of it. Everyone needs to watch this video. Seriously.

The second is a series of street interviews with people about their attitudes towards giving. If you were interviewed on the questions asked in this video, how would you respond? I ask you to give this some thought before Sunday and, if you are really brave, post your responses to the blog.

"Love Leftovers"

Our texts for this Sunday, as we continue our "Being Broadneck" series by focusing on what it means to seek deeper relationship, our texts will be Exodus 33:12-23, 34:28-32 and Matthew 22:34-40, which you can read here.

Sometimes, when I get to the end of writing the draft of my sermon, I feel frustrated because there were things that I came across that were AMAZING that I really want to get in there, but that simply don't fit, either because of where I went in direction or because of time constraints (y'all likely would not take kindly to an hour long sermon--nor, honestly, would I!). I had that happen to me this week as I had two fantastic passages to work with. I ended up spending so much time with the Exodus story that I didn't get to talk a whole lot about the Gospel text, one that holds Jesus' beautiful response to the question of what the greatest commandment is:

But, to quote the great Haddaway hit of the early '90s, "What is love?" Here are two quotes I came across this week from two people I really admire, neither of which ended up fitting into the sermon, but both of which I think are compelling and worthy of your reflection before Sunday. Hope to see you then!

"The love of which spiritual tradition speaks is “tough love,” the connective tissue of reality—and we flee from it because we fear its claims on our lives. Curiosity and control create a knowledge that distances us from each other and the world, allowing us to use what we know as a plaything and to play the game by our own self-serving rules. But a knowledge that springs from love will implicate us in the web of life; it will wrap the knower and the known in compassion, in a bond of awesome responsibility as well as transforming joy; it will call us to involvement, mutuality, accountability." 

--Parker Palmer, in his book To Know as We Are Known (a title that relates to this week's Exodus story)

"Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name. If, therefore, I do anything or think anything or say anything or know anything that is not purely for the love of God, it cannot give me peace, or rest, or fulfillment, or joy. To find love I must enter into the sanctuary where it is hidden, which is the mystery of God."

--Thomas Merton, in A Book of Hours

Envisioning the Calf

Our texts for this Sunday are two tricky ones--Exodus 32:1-14 (which will be our main focus) and Matthew 22:1-14. You can read both of them here.

Once again our blog this week will be a primarily visual one. Here are some pieces of art depicting the Golden Calf scene from Exodus 32. Pay attention to the colors, the expressions of the people's body language, what emotion the images give off. Then consider: if you had to create a modern day illustration of what it looks like when we worship "golden calves" of our own, what would that image look like? What would be at the center? What would the people be doing?

I'd love to hear your ideas, both on the blog and on Sunday!

Picturing the Covenant

Our texts for this week are primarily from the book of Exodus--Exodus 19:1-8 and 20:1-17, which you can read here. These are the story of God forging a covenant with the people of Israel from atop Mount Sinai--a covenant that begins with God articulating what we now know as the Ten Commandments.

In my reading and reflection this week, I have been perhaps most intrigued to come across some remarkable works of art that strive to picture the Ten Commandments--not as numbers or words on a tablet, but with color and image that help us understand what really living into these words might mean. I am posting four of these works (two by the same artist) below for your reflection. Then I invite you to consider (and post, if you dare): if you had to picture what the Ten Commandments look like not on tablets of stones, but as lived in a community today, what would a community living by this covenant look like? A lot of these are images of how NOT to live--what would an image of embracing this covenant look like?

See you tomorrow in worship, I hope!

A woodcutting from Poland:

Modern artist Keith Haring's installment of images on the Ten Commandments:

The illumination of this passage from the St. John's Bible (on display now at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond):