Ben Jammin' Zilla

Pentecost Sunday / “Whitsunday” Daily Office, Year 2 : Pss 118; 145 / Deut 16.9-12 / Acts 4:18-21(22)23-33 / Jn 4.19-26 Revised Common Lectionary, Year A : Acts 2:1-21 / Psalm 104:25-35, 37 / 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 / John 20:19-23 “I can’t breathe.” — George Floyd (d. 2020), Eric Garner (1970–2014)  He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20.22-23) It is regrettable that the RCL omits the second to last verse of the Pentecost Psalm: “Let sinners be consumed out of the earth, and the wicked be no more.” But this is the verse needed for this particular Pentecost… for those protesting racism and the Black bodies that lie murdered, it is clear that there is no segregation between the way the Spirit renews the face of the earth and the wickedness that would bury and bloody Black bodies into that same earth. It is in raising up a generation ...

Pss 107:33-43, 108 / Ezek 36:22-27 / Eph 6:10-24 / Matt 9:18-26 Eve of Pentecost: Ps 33 / Ex 19:3-8a (8b-15) 16-20 / I Pet 2.4-10 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. (I Peter 2.4-5) Today is both the last Saturday of Easter and a foretaste of Pentecost, the grand finale of Eastertide. Christ has been risen for fifty days, first from the grave, and then to his Father in heaven, but with the coming of the Spirit, it cannot simply be said that Christ goes up, but that the Spirit comes down. With this spacial imagery—the Spirit rippled over the face of the earth, Christ ascended on the Father’s right hand, and the Father higher still—heaven and earth are truly full of Glory. God reigns as the Most High in Truth and in Life—The Most High Father, the Christ ...

Pss 102; 107:1-32 / Jer 31:27-34 / Eph 5.1-20 / Matt 9:9-17 My days drift away like smoke. My days pass away like a shadow. O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days. (Ps 102:3, 11, 24)  Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. (Eph 5:15-16)  Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast … Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. (Jer 31.27, 31)  The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. (Matt 9:15) Edward Yang’s film  Yi Yi: A One and A Two (一 一; 2000) is one of my all time favorites. I was thinking about it yesterday as I packed my seminary dorm. It’s about a family in Taipei. The grandmother gets in an accident and goes into a c...

Pss 105:1-22; vv.23-45 / Zech 4 / Eph 4:17-32 / Matt 9:1-8 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Eph 4.30)  And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? (Matt 9.3-4) Zechariah is not everyone’s favorite book of the Bible. And I cannot claim literacy in the Minor Prophets. But this is why I’m glad the discipline of lectionaries exists to pick up my slack. In this chapter the prophet receives the fifth of his eight visions across Chs. 1-6: a golden lampstand, a bowl, seven lamps, flanked by two olive trees, and then YHWH promises that Zerubbabel will inaugurate a rebuilding of the Temple. An angel then interprets the seven lamps and the two olive trees for the prophet. My study Bible (the old 1977 edition of the New Oxford Annotated Bible ) asks the reader to compare this chapter to Ex 25.31-40, where the ...

Pss 101, 109; 119:121-144 / Isa 4:2-6 / Eph 4:1-16 / Matt 8:28-34 Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. (Is 4:3-4)  I will walk with sincerity of heart within my house. (Ps 101:2)  Not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil / but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia. (Pascha Nostrum, 1 Cor 5:8) I remember as a teen and newly born-again Christian being confused about Christ’s commandment to love enemies. If I’m nice to everybody, won’t that mean I won’t have any enemies? I presumed in my heart that if I bore no personal hatred toward people I personally knew, I could shake myself free from the words of the Lord. But it should be clear we have enemies today, because sin is about...

Psalms 97, 99, 100; 94, 95 / I Sam 16:1-13a / Eph 3:14-21 / Matt 8:18-27 A connection between the Old Testament and the Gospel stuck out to me today. It’s remarkable to me that in I Samuel today YHWH repeatedly rejects a series of candidates to be king, Jesse’s sons one by one, until David is chosen. Meanwhile, this passage of Matthew opens with Jesus rejecting two people who present themselves to be his disciples. One can place in parallel the divine election to be king in one passage, and the election to be disciple in another. In this way the human vocation to be God’s royal envoys, the imago Dei , and the call to be disciples of Christ, imitatio Christi , are now connected. But what has been on my mind today has not been this parallel, but two more instances of the wicked principality of racism that reveals the corruption that has always been cherished by the United States. George Floyd joins Eric Garner and other Black men who were robbed of breath and dignity. Their murderers...

Pss 89:1-18; 19-52 / Josh 1:1-9 / Eph 3:1-13 / Matt 8.5-17 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you. (Joshua 1:3)  When you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. (Ephesians 3:4)  He ascended into heaven. (Apostles’ Creed) The ascensiontide image of feet appears again in this Old Testament passage, as God commissions Joshua, the successor to Moses (who shares a Hebrew name with Jesus, “YHWH saves”), promising that He will not leave or forsake His people. The immediate situation of the text is not morally comfortable—God-ordained military conquest—but the divine promise is strong nonetheless and I think it provides some more insight into the Paschal Mystery. It makes me consider Christ’s passage through the waters of the death, that flowing and dark Jordan, into a risen life on the Father’s right hand where his footsteps can be found in every place on earth. I was watching an episode (okay, many episodes…)...

Ascension Sunday or The Sunday After Ascension Daily Office : Psalms 66, 67 ; 19, 46 / Exodus 3:1-12 / Hebrews 12:18-29 / Luke 10:17-24 Revised Common Lectionary : Acts 1:6-14 / Psalm 47 / John 17:1-11 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me. (Ex 3:9) Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. (Lk 10:20) Due to Sarah Coakley’s discussion with William Werpehowski about Christ’s ascension this morning in her digital School of Theology & Prayer , I have been considering these Office passages in relation to space. Space seems to be a hot topic for theological discussion of the ascension; the question is always how literally Scripture can be taken. Where did Christ’s body go? What could “where” and “go” mean for this event? Moses’ encounter with God through the burning bush almost seems a kind of foil to the ascension. “Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet...

Psalms 87, 90; 136 / Numbers 11:16-17, 24-29 / Ephesians 2:11-22 / Matthew 7:28-8:4 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. (Eph 2:18 KJV)  Then Moses said… Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them! (Num 11:29) We can see the Trinity moving powerfully in the Ephesians passage—through Christ, believers are given the Spirit, and will enter the Father's household. For the New Testament, there is an intimate relationship between Christ and the Spirit of God—and beyond the particularities of trinitarian dogmatics, I think that what is read in Ephesians today is yet another way of emphasizing the inseparability of Christ and the Spirit.  The Spirit is sometimes seen as the wild side of God—unbounded and indefinite and inclusive, a relief from the “scandal of particularity” who is Jesus Christ and the historical shape of his life, his teachings, and claims made by him and about him that are exclusi...

Psalms 85, 86; 91, 92 / I Samuel 2.1-10 / Ephesians 2.1-10 / Matthew 7.22-27 Peace shall be a pathway for his feet. (Ps 85:13 BCP)  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works... that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:10 RSV)  Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us… to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Benedictus (Canticle 4), Lk 1:78, 79) Isn’t it interesting that much theology of ascension makes use of the image of Christ putting all things “in subjection under his feet,” and today’s Office readings the day after Ascension now bring up multiple instances of walking? Augustine expands this image: if Christ is the Head of his Body the Church, then we are the feet. And really this is an expansion of Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works... that we should walk in them.” We express and participate in the movement of Christ in this world. If he has ascended...

Eve of Ascension (Office): Psalm 68:1-20 / II Kings 2:1-15 / Revelation 5:1-14 Ascension Day (Office):  Psalms 8, 47; 24, 96 / Daniel 7:9-14 / Hebrews 2:5-18 / Matthew 28:16-20 Ascension Day (Revised Common Lectionary):  Acts 1:1-11 / Psalm 47 or 93 / Ephesians 1:15-23 / Luke 24:44-53 As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. (II Kings 2:2, 4, 6)  I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20) Many Christians do not know what to do with the Ascension. It seems like a superstitious afterthought compared to the marvel of resurrection. But the tradition of the Church and the compacted wisdom of the creeds understands them as a unit. One can see the connection simply by meditating on the word raised : Christ was raised from the dead. Who raised Christ? God. Where will Christ rise? He will return to God. What does this say about us though? What nice things for God to do for His Beloved Son. But so what? What is...

Easter VI, Year 2, Wednesday Ps 119:97-120 / Lev 26:27-42 / Eph 1.1-10 / Mt 22:41-46 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate . Lev 26:34  And no one was able to answer him a word . Matt 22:46 As Leviticus speeds toward its end, today YHWH warns Israel that if they do not obey Him, “walking contrary to me,” then “I also will walk contrary to you” (26:23, 24), and threatens them with exile. Holiness is a path, but the path must be walked. If Israel does not walk in the Lord’s statutes, and swerves, then their national destiny will also swerve. Just as swerving can destroy the integrity of a path, exile destroys the integrity of a nation. To hear the wrath of God expressed this way is hard, but it can be interpreted as a personal metaphor for consequences; to be an unjust nation will mean that Israel will undo itself. But God wishes to preserve the fragile life of His vine nonetheless: confession, humility, and remembrance will uphold the covenant (vv.40...

Psalm 78 / Leviticus 26:1-20 / 1 Timothy 2:1-6 / Matthew 13:18-23 And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. Lev 26:16  When anyone hears of the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown along the path. Mt 13:19  He gave their crops to the caterpillar / and the fruit of their labor to the locust. Ps 78:46 The long and mighty Psalm 78 surveys the journey of Israel through the wilderness out of Egypt, their struggles with idolatry. There is both deep disobedience and deep promise. Could this frame the shared motif of the Leviticus and Matthew passages today: fruitfulness and growth? The risk could be disastrous. To truly receive the word of God, warns Christ, is no easy matter: the battle is not only within the human heart, but without, from the outside. The seed could be taken by Satan, the wickedness of this world; or the seed could not take root insid...

You have fed them with the bread of tears... Turn now, O God of hosts... behold and tend this vine. Ps 80:5, 14 You will bring them in and plant them. Song of Moses (Canticle 8), Ex 15:17 … lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work. Col 1:10 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow." Mt 13:3 Today’s the first weekday in a brief period of Eastertide called the Rogation Days. The first collect is one for fruitful seasons. Planting and farming are one of the oldest metaphors for the spiritual life. There is predictability and mystery in a kind of wedding, an uncomfortable union that is nonetheless fact. The methods are known. The seeds are planted. The rows are furrowed. Yet the weather may be fickle, a drought may come, the swarm might devour, and all the effort may be wasted. Lament and joy in cycle: we eat, and life feels full, and we starve and the only bread to eat are our tears. But it is ...

A fertile coincidence appeared in yesterday's (Thursday's) #DailyOffice Lectionary, which appointed the Temptation of Christ in Matthew 4:1-11. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” He answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matt 4:3-4) Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. (#EveningPrayer, BCP p.124; see Lk 24:29, 35) The appointed prayer evokes Emmaus and Maundy Thursday by asking Christ to be known in the breaking of bread. But in Matt 4, Christ makes himself known by REFUSING bread. What a juxtaposition! Why? I believe the key is the Word of God. In the Emmaus resurrection appearance (Lk 24), Christ unlocks the Scriptures, and this unlocking climaxe...