I am trying something new by placing the song lyrics, readings, and prayers into the videos for this week’s digital worship, so in lieu of the long post you have the worship video and the sermon video (extracted from the worship video) below. Digital worship services and sermons are one of the previous week’s live services.
2 All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946)
3 American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1997)
7 Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. by Judy Blume (1970)
12 The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood (1946)
13 The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939)
14 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (2000)
25 A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell (1951)
26 The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West (1939)
28 A Death in the Family by James Agee (1958)
40 A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh (1934)
43 Herzog by Saul Bellow (1964)
46 I, Claudius by Robert Graves (1934)
49 A Light in August by William Faulkner (1932)
50 The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (1950)
53 The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien (1954)
55 Loving by Henry Green (1945)
73 Possession by A. S. Byatt (1990)
74 The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (1939)
83 Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992)
94 Ubik by Philip K. Dick (1969)
The Prophet Joel painted by Michelangelo and his assistants for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican between 1508 to 1512
The prophet Joel is one of several books in the bible that often are overlooked by Christians. We may hear the shrill words of Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17 as one of the options to call congregations to repentance on Ash Wednesday to begin the Lenten journey or hear Peter’s reference to Joel 2: 28-29 on the day of Pentecost, but this short text is otherwise a mystery to most people of faith. A very attentive reader may remember the plague of locusts which begins the book, but it is far more likely that this book that resides between Hosea and Amos will be forgotten. One of my goals in these reflections is to dive into the parts of scripture that I am less familiar with, and the prophet Joel certainly matches that description.
The prophet Joel is one of the ‘twelve prophets’ or ‘minor prophets’ in the Hebrew Scriptures. The term the ‘twelve prophets’ comes from when the books were written on scrolls. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are each long enough that they require their own scroll while Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi[1] were written together on a single scroll. Knowing the context that the prophet is speaking to can be very beneficial for the reader but in the case of Joel this is difficult to pinpoint since Joel doesn’t mention any specific historical events. Scholars use the following clues to make a best guess of Joel’s rough time period:
Most scholars now view Joel as a 4th Century prophet before 343 BCE which means that Jerusalem has been resettled after the Babylonian exile, the temple has been rebuilt, and Israel (now referring to the remnant of Judah centered around Jerusalem, is a province of the Persian Empire (based out of modern-day Iran). There would be no king of the Hebrew people, instead this time period reflects the reality after Ezra and Nehemiah where Judah is a vassal state of Persia yet is still troubled by marauding nations and is unable to adequately defend itself.
As with my previous reflections I utilize the work of several authors who have spent a long time studying this portion of scripture. Below are the people whose reflections I am studying alongside my own writing and reflections.:
Elizabeth Achtemeier, “The Book of Joel” in The New Interpreter’s Bible. Volume VII. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996.
Bruce C. Birch, Hosea, Joel, and Amos. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997.
John J. Collins. Joel, Obadiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Collegeville, MC: Liturgical Press,2007.
James D. Nogalski. The Books of Joel, Obadiah, and Jonah. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 2023
The book of Joel is a short book, but I am excited to begin walking intentionally through these three chapters.
[1] In the Christian organization of the Bible Daniel is included among the prophets but in the Jewish organization of scripture Daniel is included among the writings. The Jewish organization also includes Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, and 1&2 Kings in the prophets.
[2] The numbering of the book of Joel in English and Hebrew is different. Hebrew treats Joel 2: 28-32 as a separate chapter (Joel 3: 1-5) and the third chapter of Joel in English translations is the fourth chapter in Hebrew.
I created this for my congregation as a summer study on the book of Philippians. It is more of a devotional with a short reflection on a couple verses each day. This is the second chapter of Philippians, below is a link to the other chapters
Day 16: Philippians 3: 1b-4a
Day 17: Philippians 3: 4b-6
Day 18: Philippians 3: 7-11
Day 19: Philippians 3: 12-16
Day 20: Philippians 3: 17-4:1
I created this for my congregation as a summer study on the book of Philippians. It is more of a devotional with a short reflection on a couple verses each day. This is the second chapter of Philippians, below is a link to the other chapters
Day 9: Philippians 2: 1-4
Day 10: Philippians 2: 5-8
Day 11: Philippians 2: 9-11
Day 12: Philippians 2: 12-13
Day 13: Philippians 2: 14-18
Day 14: Philippians 2: 19-24
Day 15: Philippians 2: 25- 3:1a
I created this for my congregation as a summer study on the book of Philippians. It is more of a devotional with a short reflection on a couple verses each day.
Day 1: Philippians 1: 1-2
Day 2: Philippians 1: 3-6
Day 3: Philippians 1: 7-11
Day 4: Philippians 1: 12-14
Day 5: Philippians 1: 15-18
Day 6: Philippians 1: 18b-20
Day 7: Philippians 1: 20-26
Earth at Sunrise from:https://wallup.net/planet-earth-lights-sunrise-europe/
<To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song.>
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us.
7 May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.
The Jewish[1] sense of being chosen by God involves a paradox between the universalism of God’s bounty over all the earth and the particularism of their specific role and responsibility within God’s greater action on behalf of the world and the nations. They are to be a ‘treasured possession, a priestly kingdom, and a holy nation,’ (Exodus 19: 5-6) but like their ancestor Abraham, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12: 3) Central to the theology of the psalms, and the entire scriptures, is the audacious claim that the particular God they worship is the God of all creation. This small nation, which are descendants of slaves in Egypt, and never emerges as major player on the world stage somehow trusts that the covenantal life they live will be a witness for all the nations to see and it will testify to the universal reign of the God they worship.
The psalm is structured as a chiasm[2] with verse four as the center. This central point focuses on the universal reign and worship of their God. This universal reign is to be demonstrated by the praise of all the peoples. This idea is echoed in several other places in scripture either in relation to the God of Israel (Exodus 9:16, Psalm 22: 27-28, Isaiah 2: 2-4; 19: 23-34; 49: 5-7) or Jesus. (Matthew 28:18, Philippians 2: 10-11) The petition at the beginning of the psalm that God may bless us (echoing the priestly blessing of Numbers 6: 24-26 but now placing it in the voice of the people rather than the priest) is paired with the hope that through this blessing God’s way make be known upon the earth and God’s saving power among the nations. The Psalm mirrors this request by announcing that God has blessed and the earth yields its harvest (increase) and in God’s continued action of blessing the people of Israel the ends of the earth will revere God.
This idea of election or calling of the people of God for the sake of the rest of the earth makes a more gracious view of those who believe and act differently available for the chosen people. God’s blessing on the earth and the nations does not depend upon the conversion or subjugation of those nations. Even if these Gentiles or unbelievers do not ‘know’ that it is God at work, the covenant people know and celebrate this. This is a part of the mystery of God’s strange and gracious way upon the earth. God can act through a foreigner like Cyrus in Isaiah 45: 1-5 to bring about a blessing for the covenant people. As Jesus can state in Matthew’s gospel, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5: 44-45) These followers of God are to live in gratitude for the blessings that God sends both to them and the unrighteous, to those who are a part of the covenant people and the ones beyond the boundaries of their faith or nation. They continue to pray for God’s blessings not only on themselves but also for the whole world. God’s special consideration of the covenant people somehow, in the mystery of God’s steadfast love, is a part of God’s establishing justice for all the people and a way in which God provides guidance for all the earth.
[1] This also applies to the Christian sense of being chosen or calling.
[2] A Chiasm is a poetic and literary structure where ideas and often vocabulary is mirrored around a central point. I have indented the psalm to show this structure where vs. 1-2 are mirrored by 6-7, vs. 3 and 5 are identical copies and verse four stands as the focal point.
Grigory Mekheev, Exodus (2000) artist shared work under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
<To the leader. A Song. A Psalm.>
1 Make a joyful[1] noise to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise.
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth worships you; they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name.” Selah
5 Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.
6 He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There we rejoiced in him,
7 who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations — let the rebellious not exalt themselves. Selah
8 Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs;
12 you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.
13 I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows,
14 those that my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings, with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams; I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.
17 I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened; he has given heed to the words of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me.
For the Hebrew people the Exodus is the defining narrative that informs their life as the people of God. Without God’s action to bring them out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the promised land they are not a people of their own, merely slaves of the great Egyptian empire. Central to their faith is the trust that God acted in mighty ways to deliver their ancestors in the past and that God continues to act in ways to protect, preserve, purify, and refine so that they might be a treasured possession, a priestly kingdom, and a holy nation. (Exodus 19: 5-6) The people of God participate with the rest of creation in bearing witness to not only the mighty deeds of God but the careful formation of this people into something precious.
The previous psalm ended with the valleys and meadows shouting for joy and singing and now Psalm 66 begins with the imperative for all the earth to shout to God. God’s name and God’s power are lifted up as reasons for that praise and both friend and foe recognize the power of God. The initial stanza of this psalm joins together the voices of humanity with the voices of the creation in an exultant praise of God’s glory and strength while the second stanza invites the hearer to learn the specific actions that the psalmist views as praiseworthy. The invitation to come and see God’s awesome deeds takes the listener to the exodus narrative where God turned the Red Sea into dry land for Israel to cross and, before their entry into the promised land, God does the same with the Jordan river. These actions to bring the people out of Egypt and into the promised land demonstrate for the speaker God’s rule over the nations and God’s ability to execute justice throughout the world. The rebellious ones find themselves overwhelmed by God’s judgment like Korah and the leaders he assembled to confront Moses. (Numbers 16)
The work of God is not completed with the rescue of the people but it continues with the formation of this people to become the holy nation they are set aside to be. The other nations are invited to observe the way that the God of Israel is at work testing and refining the people, training them as one would train an athlete or soldier by giving them additional burdens to bear, and passing them through fire and water that they might be who they were created to be. As Beth Tanner can observe, “The world is eavesdropping on Israel’s formation as God’s people.” (Nancy deClaisse-Walford 2014, 535) The speaker does not resent this formation but rather praises God because of it. God has shaped and formed them to be something special and they respond with an abundant thanksgiving offering of fatlings, rams, bulls, and goats are offered. Presumably this type of offering would take place within a great communal feast celebrating God’s provision and telling again the story of God’s mighty deeds through the Exodus.
The psalm concludes with a move from a highlighting of what God has done for the people to centering on God’s answering of the prayer of the speaker. God has formed the speaker to be pure of heart and God also hears the prayers of this treasured one. God’s promised steadfast love has been there when the psalmist needed it and God has demonstrated that God is trustworthy in God’s relation to the individual as well as the people. Living in the covenant with this God has brought the psalmist to the point where they shout out joyfully with all creation for the mighty work of their God.
This is a psalm that speaks to what Dietrich Bonhoeffer would many years later call ‘costly grace.’ The grace (or steadfast love) in this psalm chooses the people without any worthiness of their own, but it also tests and tries the recipient so that they may become something precious. This steadfast love is at work in the work of creation, redemption, and sanctification-forming from slaves and sinners a holy people, a treasured possession, and a priestly kingdom. It is a faith which allows the faithful one to understand the struggles they pass through as a part of their formation to be who they were intended by God to be. It is a faith that can point to God’s mighty deeds in the past but also acknowledges the way that God has given heed to the words of the faithful one’s prayer. Perhaps one of the gifts in this psalm is the way that the steadfast love of God is seen at the conclusion, after the mighty deeds and the passing through fire and water. As Bonhoeffer stated in Discipleship, “Grace as presupposition is grace at its cheapest; grace as a conclusion is costly grace.” (DBWE 4:51) Perhaps it is only looking back through the struggles that one can appreciate the manner in which both the struggles and the mighty works together have been a part of God’s patient formation of the people and the individual through the ever-present steadfast love of God.
[1] This is the Hebrew verb rua (shout) which appears at the end of the last verst of Psalm 65
To introduce Creative Words I did several readings of selections from throughout the work. Click on any of the titles and it will take you to the reading with the text of the poem:
Reading of the title poem Creative Words
If you would like to read a review of Creative Words by an independent reviewer for Clarion book reviews you can access that here.
Signed Paperback of Creative Words
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Signed Hard Cover Signed Creative Words
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Sign of the Rose 