Uniform Lesson for September 19, 2021 Scripture passage and lesson focus: Mark 10:46-52 We shift this week from Hebrew Scripture to the stories of Jesus. Here too we encounter a procession of God’s presence, as Jesus makes his way through Jericho toward Jerusalem. Here too are crowds, commotion and questions of who can speak and how and why. But this time the shouting begins not with praise but petition, and it ends with little fanfare other than how the former petitioner (Bartimaeus) follows Jesus on the way. What might this lesson teach us about worship and the celebration of a God who helps us see again? Mark 10:46-48 — Petition preceding praise In small-town congregations, the gathering of God’s people for worship often attracts the attention of people in need. Very often, one unwritten duty of the ushers can be to “screen out” any person who shows up for the service with some immediate need. “Could you give me some money so I can get something to eat?” “I need to buy a bus … [Read more...]

Uniform Lesson for September 12, 2021 Scripture passage and lesson focus: 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 14-19 This week we move from the sands of the Red Sea to the rocky paths leading to Jerusalem. Again we encounter worship that includes tambourines and dancing, but this time the dancer is a king. Presbyterians love a good processional, with organ and choir robes and maybe even a little brass. But dancing in a linen ephod, by either the king or the clerk of session? What’s going on here? And what might it teach us — about worship and politics, about worship and derision, about worship and ecstasy (or at least enthusiasm)? Worship and politics Next time we plan a processional, it might be good to think about the politics involved. Any parade is political, because it’s a gathering of people, arranged in some particular order for some particular purpose. Who’s in front? What costumes are allowed? How enthusiastic is the dancing or the stepping? What is the focus for the music and the banners? … [Read more...]

Uniform Lesson for September 5, 2021 Scripture passage and lesson focus: Exodus 15:11-21 This week we kick off “Celebrating God,” a 13-lesson series on worship. Its central theme is praise. In Scripture, praise is the most essential of all creaturely activities. Not sex, not acquisition, not war, but praise: full-throated, heart-expanding, foot-stomping, community-creating praise. Psalms teach that the sun and the moon can praise; mouentains and hills can praise; wild animals, creeping things and even “sea monsters and all deeps” (Psalm 148:7) can praise. Maybe the creatures most equipped for praise, yet also most parsimonious in its practice, are we Homo sapiens. We may think too much and dance and sing too little. But this quarter is an invitation to do better. Consider the final verse of the psalter: “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” Back to the beginning God’s people were birthed in an act of praise. Here I refer not to the creation of all human … [Read more...]

Uniform Lesson for August 29, 2021 Scripture passage and lesson focus: 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10 We now conclude our series on confident hope. We have talked a great deal about how our faith in things we cannot see gives us courage to face the things we can. Now our faith in unseen things reaches its climax with the hope of resurrection from the dead. The early church saw and even touched this reality in the appearances of the risen Lord. But by the time of Paul’s Corinthian correspondence, these appearances were in the past. Now faith in unseen possibilities enters a new chapter. As more and more followers of the Way died, as divisions within and persecutions without increased and as the Way seemed less clear than even the disciples’ journey to Jerusalem and the cross — how could this community hold on to confident hope? First, the Corinthians had the Spirit as a guarantee. Second, they had faith in the faithfulness of God. And third, such faithfulness on God’s part inspired … [Read more...]

Uniform Lesson for August 22, 2021 Scripture passage and lesson focus: 1 John 4:2-3, 13-17; 5:4-5  As we move toward the end of our series on Confident Hope, we shift from the general epistle to the Hebrews to the more targeted letters of the communities of “The Beloved Disciple.” While the language of love overflows, it is clear that this is a community that is deeply divided. At the heart of this division, apparently, are disagreements regarding faith. This unit is focused on the way that faith gives us hope. Our passage for this week ends with the affirmation that faith helps us conquer the world. But how do we guard against a kind of faith that cracks open and splinters the beloved community the Spirit hopes to inspire? 1 John 4:2-3 —  From faith (singular) to faiths (plural) Early in the evolution of the first Christian communities, talk of faith was grounded in a basic trust in the way God’s love was made manifest in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. God’s … [Read more...]

Uniform Lesson for August 15, 2021 Scripture passage and lesson focus: Hebrews 10:23-36 Having begun to compile our own Hall of Faith, we now step back a chapter to think about why a contemporary list of heroines and heroes is necessary. Jesus was able to persevere amid suffering, persecution and death on his own (though constantly in communion with God). Such solitary witness is beyond us. As the writer makes clear, we need one another, we may need the threat of judgment and we certainly need some prior experience of faith in the midst of suffering if we are going to endure. Following Jesus has and always will be a team effort if it is going to succeed and spread. Hebrews 10:23-25 — Together, hold fast The writer leads off by reminding us of the ground for our hope. It’s not our own faith, but the faithfulness of God. Hold fast without wavering. Why? “For he who has promised is faithful.” Simple as that. Because God is faithful, we should be faithful. End of story. And yet, … [Read more...]