Rev. Jean's Bible Study

Luke 1:39-45    James Tissot  If there is on thing a young pregnant woman needs it is another trusted woman to talk to. So Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth also pregnant.  The young virgin and the old women well past her child bearing years both recipients of God’s grace.  Elizabeth greets Mary with the words, “blessed is she who believed that there would be fulfillment of God’s word.”  It got me wondering about believing and being blessed.  Can the very act of believing lead us to feel more blessed?  If we trust in the promise of God, for example that “never again will I destroy every living creature” (Genesis 8:21), will that give us the assurance and confidence to make the required changes to address our climate emergency knowing that we will be successful?  Can our choosing to believe keep us from despair and inaction?   Whether we believe or whether we choose not to believe, in God, in goodness, in human kindness, in pos...

Luke 1:26-38 Being told you are pregnant, by a pregnancy test, a doctor or even an angel, comes with a mixture of feelings:   joy, dread, shock, worry, hope, fear, nausea.   Modern women who faithfully and carefully used birth control can identify with Mary’s response “How can this be?”   “That’s impossible.”   Nothing is impossible with God.   Sometimes we think that quote goes nothing is impossible for God.   The implication of that phrase is that God can do anything, even change the laws of nature.   Nothing is impossible with God means that no matter what nature, or life, throws at us, whether expected or unexpected, whether understood or impossible to explain, with God there is nothing we can’t handle.   “Let it be to me according to your word.”   It is what it is, so let’s get on with it.   There is no reason for us not to be hopeful that we can face our collective problems and find good and faithful solutions.   Nothing is ...

John 11:45-57   The Turning of the Tide Once the tide has turned there is no way anyone can stop it. Life can predictably be moving along as usual until one day you realize that ‘as usual’ isn’t there anymore and it is never coming back.   We have changed our post-pandemic language from a desire to return to normal to a wondering about the new normal and what it will be.   I think that climate change and our necessary adaptations have also passed the point of no return.   We will become carbon neutral.   I am not sure how many will be sacrificed in the process for the good of the people.   The story of Lazarus, his death and Jesus’ raising of him (John11:1-44) is a turning point in the story of John’s gospel.   It is the response to that event (whatever it was) by the chief priests and Pharisees that we read this week.   Their response showed them trying desperately to contain and control a movement that had become out of control.   They...

photo by Michael Benz (unsplash)  John 7:53-8:11   Expecting Better The footnotes at the bottom of the page in my Bible tell me that not all ancient authorities include this story of a woman charged with adultery in the gospel.  You might conclude, therefore, that it is not an incident from Jesus’ life but one that someone made up and added later.  Or you could conclude that some ancient copiers were so scandalized by Jesus’ actions in this story that they chose not to include it.  I prefer the second explanation.  The preservation of the text was always in the hands of the powerful ones, the educated ones who could read and write, the wealthy ones who had the time and access to ink and papyri so they could copy the text by hand, word for word, almost.  What would these powerful ones (likely men) have to gain by making up this story?  Why would it even occur to them to make it up?  What would they have to gain by leaving it out? In our ti...

  John 5:1-18   The Old and the New photo by Levi Guzman on unsplash Here again we have a story that can be read as “the old ways aren’t working; we need to try something new.”   Note that the man who was made well by Jesus’ ‘new way’ was the man who ‘told on him.’   Why is it we tend to cling to what is familiar and block change even though we know it would be better for us to move on?   Verse 18 summarizes the threat that the Jews felt from the Christians.   They were breaking the laws which held them together as a community and they were threatening their unique theological claim that there is one God.   From the perspective of 2000 years, it is easy to see why the Jews rejected the Christians.   They threatened to wipe out their faith, their culture and their community which had always been a small minority surviving tenuously in a very different and powerful majority. The question for us is why did we Christians feel the need to persecute...