Break Open the Word

The Sixth Sunday of Easter, 6 May    2018 Acts 10:44-48 Psalm 98 I John 5:9-17 St. John 15:9-17 Background: Water and Baptism I have the bowl in which I was baptized. My father, a Lutheran pastor, baptized me in an emergency baptism; I was a so-called blue baby and there were fears that I might not live. I have the bowl – it is quite small, but there was sufficiency of water, intent, and Word. I think it’s important to remember the role that water plays in the salvation history given us in the Scriptures. There are the primeval rivers in Eden, and there is the Flood – the image Luther used in his  Flutgebet [1] . In his book,  Being Christian, Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer , Rowan Williams reminds us of the symbolic aspects of the baptismal waters.  “At the very beginning of creation, the book of Genesis tells us, there was watery chaos. And over that watery chaos there was, depending on how you read the Hebrew, the Holy Spirit...

The Fifth Sunday of Easter, 29 April    2018 Acts 8:26-40 Psalm 22:24-30 I John 4:7-21 St. John 15:1-8 Background: Eunuchs Eunuchs were known throughout the ancient world, and well into the modern world. Some were neutered to diminish their influence with higher ups, to render them less of threat in the harem, or to give them that child-like voice that was so beloved in the Baroque era. In the political sense, these men were seen as more trustworthy, not bound by family ties. In ancient Greece, the eunuch was not always the function of the removal of organs but could be one who abstained from procreation. Some have seen the origin of the term in the phrase, “guarding the bed”  (to ten eunen ekhein)  or from “good mind”  (eu nous).  Eunuchs were known in the Ancient Near Eastern cultures, Assyria, Egypt, Persia, and amongst the Hittites. There are instances of the use of the word “eunuch” in various translations of the Hebrew Scrip...