Twelve Scriptures project

Text #4: Mark 12:28-34           

Unless you are just back from a very long summer vacation, which I know a few of you are, you know that we have been focusing on the 12 Scriptures that we have selected as a congregation as being most significant for us.  This is a project being encouraged across our denomination, Mennonite Church USA.  The idea is that we are able to get a window into what we, together, hold as most valuable, of central importance, or, to use a little more lofty theological language, what is our congregational hermeneutical center out of which we interpret not only scripture, but also lived experience.  The question we will be speaking to throughout the summer is “Which scriptures are the first of all?”

One of the unique aspects of today’s scripture is that it isn’t just one scripture.  It appears three different times, in the gospels with Matthew, Mark, and Luke each having their own version of this exchange between Jesus and the religious leaders.  Luke’s version includes the telling of the story of the Good Samaritan, the only place the parable appears in the Bible.  Even more, this exchange itself, each time it is told in the gospels, involves Jesus quoting two passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, one from Deuteronomy, and one from Leviticus.  So, technically, this “scripture” includes five different scriptures, and if anyone chose just one of those scriptures in their twelve, we took the liberty of combining then together into this one, using Mark’s version as a reading.  I’m thinking this five for the price of one bargain basement deal is a healthy sign that Mennonite frugality is alive and well.  It’s just too good to pass up.

Another way that this passage stands out, which I tried…

Twelve Scriptures project

Text #3: 1 John 4:7-21

We are in week three of our Twelve Scriptures project – each scripture chosen by this congregation – and are making a transition into another theme.  Genesis 1 and John 1 both spoke of the Creativity of the Word and the next three scriptures speak of the Primacy of Love.  Visually, we are hopping from the first dot to the second dot, and going from red to orange, which sounds like we are down grading some kind of security threat or something.

There’s a couple reasons why this 1 John passage fits especially well here.  One is that it connects with last week in that we are still with John, or at least someone in John’s community who is writing in his name and in his style.  John 1 was the beginning of his gospel, not to be confused with 1 John which is a letter, or an essay, or maybe even a sermon being written within the faith community that formed around John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, as in Peter, James, and John.  So even though we’re onto this other theme, there is that link between last week and this.

Another reason why this fits well here is the way it introduces Love.  There is plenty of talk in the Bible and in churches about our need to love others –  that’s kind of our thing.  John also emphasizes this, many times.  But John also says something else.  It’s the first phrase of the part of the passage that’s printed in your bulletins, in verse 16.  Not only do we love one another, but “God is love.”  And in verse 19, “We love because God first loved us.”

Last week I told a story from seminary days about the Word becoming a house through…

Twelve Scriptures project

Text #2: John 1:1-5;14

When’s the last time you saw a word become flesh?  I’m not sure how I’d answer my own question, but I’m pretty sure I once saw a word become a house, although it was kind of by accident.

During my first year of seminary I took a course on preaching.  Part of the coursework involved a preaching lab in which we delivered sermons to classmates and the professor, receiving and giving constructive criticism.  This was all fairly new stuff for us, and so we proceeded to give what were hopefully the worst sermons of our lives.  I hereby nominate for official sainthood June Alliman Yoder, longtime preaching professor at the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, for having to sit through several decades’ worth of Mennonite pastors in training, all the while keeping her groans to a minimum and her criticism constructive.

After one of my sermons, whose point I and everyone have long forgotten, I received the evaluation form back from June.  Along with some other technical comments, she noted that I had told a story about my experience with Habitat for Humanity while in Mennonite Voluntary Service in St. Louis.  Her brief side remark was something to the effect: “Maybe the seminary could build a Habitat house someday.”  Intrigued, I followed up with her about the idea, and, to make a long story short, after getting some likeminded people together, connecting with the local Habitat chapter, talking up the idea on campus, doing some fundraising, and lining up volunteers, the seminary community built a Habitat for Humanity house with a mother and her teenage son, about a year after that fateful and forgettable sermon was preached.  Whether it was the word from the sermon or the word from the evaluation form or any of the words…

Twelve Scriptures project

Text #1: Genesis 1

The Hebrew Scriptures, and our Christian Bible, begin this way:

In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth.

And the earth, it was welter and waste,

And darkness was on the face of the deep,

And a wind from Elohim hovered on the face of the waters.

And Elohim said: “Let there be light.”  And there was light.

—  Genesis 1:1-2

The selection round for our Twelve Scriptures project has come to a close, and we have our finalists.  Unlike reality TV, we will not be forced to eliminate one of these scriptures each week until we arrive at a singular favorite.  Playing CMC Idol with passages from a book that isn’t too keen on idolatry doesn’t seem like all that good of an idea.  So unlike that and the World Cup, these scriptures get to enjoy group play all summer without having to worry about who is in and who is out of the final tournament.

This summer we’ll be walking through these twelve scriptures – beautifully displayed here – thanks Adam Ruggles and Seth Trance – and pondering what they have to say to us as a congregation and as individuals.  After each sermon time, we’ll hear a short reflection from one person on the significance of that scripture for them.  You’ll notice that the passages are grouped by theme rather than the order that they appear in the Bible.  But with Genesis 1 as one of the scriptures, it only feels right that we start there, at the beginning.  “In the beginning,” as Genesis, and the entire Bible, begins.

Perhaps moreso than most parts of the Bible, what we bring to this Genesis 1 text by way of personal background and experience affects how we read it.  Some may feel that their primary relationship with this passage is…

Text: Acts 2:1-21 | Pentecost

There’s a story in the Torah, in the book of Numbers chapter 11, that takes place just after the Israelites depart from Mt Sinai where Moses received the teachings of the law on the people’s behalf.  They are again on the move and they are again complaining about the lack of dining options in the desert.  Nothing but this bland manna to eat.  The people are upset, and this makes Moses, their leader, upset.  Moses has it out with Yahweh saying that this is an impossible task, too heavy a burden to bear, and that if Yahweh is indeed merciful that Yahweh should end his life at once.

Yahweh’s response is to have Moses gather 70 of the elders of the people together.  Yahweh says, “I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself.”  Moses is skeptical, but goes along with the idea.  He calls these elders together, takes them outside the encampment and has them circle up around the tent of meeting, which was the place Moses would go to meet with Yahweh.  Kind of a mobile mini temple.  A temple for nomads.  They circle up around this tent of meeting, and sure enough, Yahweh comes down in a cloud and takes some of the spirit that was on Moses and distributes it to the 70 elders.   The spirit rests on them, and they begin prophesying, speaking profound and insightful words.

The only catch to the situation was that two of the elders either didn’t get the memo or were lagging behind and were still back in the camp with the people, not gathered at that special…