tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2460256030106063126.post-48051123396349410332008-04-15T20:19:00.001-04:002008-04-15T20:21:39.652-04:00<div style="text-align: center;">LECTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP </div><div style="text-align: center;">Week of Sunday, April 20, 2008, Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A</div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Acts 7:55-60</div> Filled with the Holy Spirit, Stephen gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died. 1 Peter 2:2-10 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner," and "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. John 14:1-14 Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it." THEOLOGICAL TIDBITS: - The crass interpretation of this passage is that Stephen just got carried away. He begins by preaching the word to the people around him. Then he get a little carried away… and the Spirit takes him… and he says something unacceptable, and they stone him. - This tells us some things about group dynamics and the cost of discipleship. - An interesting thing is that at this point, Saul is watching and “approving.” (8:1). Shortly thereafter he has his conversion experience and becomes Paul. The connection of Saul, the stoning, and the Holy Spirit is an interesting “in” to the meaning of this passage. - This passage of 1 Peter seems to shift metaphors constantly in an unfocused way. But the word “holiness” and its form as a continuation of the “house code” from last week are clearly keys to understanding it. - Note the use of the “cornerstone” analogy. One thing to note is that the phrase “head of the corner” can be better translated “capstone” or “keystone.” The keystone in an arch is what makes it work—without a perfectly shaped keystone, an arch will fall. Jesus is the living keystone that holds us together. - This passage gives us the same hiccups as the passage from last week, in that it seems to say that the only way to salvation is through Jesus. So is a tribesman in an as-yet unfound tribe in the Amazon without salvation, simply because he didn’t hear the name Jesus? o Pluralism: This view holds that there are many different ways to God, so any person or religion that serves enlightened moral ends can lead to salvation. Another variant on this is the claim that believe in Jesus “works” in that it leads to good results (this is what William James said), and so anyone else can be left to his own devices religiously. These solutions help our sense of the prima facie injustice of condemning people to hell that did nothing wrong. But they also beg the question: why does it strike us as unjust? What are “enlightened moral ends” or “good results?” This finally boils down to Plato’s question: are things good because God says they are good, or does God say they are good because they are good in the first place? And what would it mean, either way? o Particularism: This view holds that unless you’re a Christian, baptized in the water and the Spirit, you’re going to hell. Possibly there are exceptions for young children, or maybe there’s a sort of lesser not-quite-hell-but-not-heaven-either where “righteous pagans” go, but the basic point is still the same. This presents its own problems. It seems prima facie unjust. It also creates an issue with how particular you have to be. So, is everyone who’s not an Episcopalian going to hell? What about the Nigerian types up in Fairfax? Finally, it’s at least conceivable that when a Hindu of a certain stripe says “Shiva,” he thinks of the same thing I do when I think of Jesus, or something more or less close to it. Why are we not as comfortable with the slipperiness of words in this context as we are in so many others? - One other thing to take a careful look at is that Jesus gives the solution to the faith/works conundrum that the Roman Church and the Calvinists and Lutherans have been harping at for a half millennium. Faith leads to works, and works faith; it’s too bad people get too focused on the first paragraph to notice it.Lectionary Bible Studyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17707771987937857835noreply@blogger.com