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Breath of the Spirit

Pastoral, Liturgical, Teaching, and Social Justice Moments brought to you by www.DignityUSA.org.

Breath of the Spirit is DignityUSA’s electronic spiritual and liturgical resource for our members and potential members. Nothing can replace your chapter or other faith community, but we hope you will find further support here for integrating your spirituality with your sexuality and all the strands of your life.

We welcome relevant homilies, inspirational writings, social justice opportunities, or theological articles from other sources also — particularly from wise women and men who can help us grow as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) and allied Catholic/Christians. You may volunteer to help with this program or send your comments by e-mailing info@DignityUSA.org ATTN: Breath of the Spirit.

MAY 3, 2009: FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Readings: 
Acts 4:8-12
1 John 3:1-2
John 10:11-18

Readers of the Christian Scriptures can never forget Rudolph Bultmann’s insight about the first Christians:

“After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the preacher became the preached.” “Things” changed drastically after Jesus died and rose. Before that double event, Jesus crisscrossed the country preaching a reform of Judaism. As far as scholars can tell, he rarely, if ever, preached himself. That doesn’t happen until his original followers began to reflect on the significance of the risen Jesus in their daily lives.

APRIL 26, 2009: THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

Readings: 
Acts 3:13-15,17-19
I John 2:1-5a
Luke 24:35-48

It’s difficult for some Christians to admit that our four gospels are not four biographies of Jesus. The first gospel (Mark) wasn’t written until at least 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. By that time eye and ear witnesses of the historical Jesus were rare. And no one who personally saw or heard that itinerant carpenter/preacher from Capernaum wrote anything about him which has come down to us. All our Christian Scriptures were composed by people who knew only the risen Jesus.

APRIL 19, 2009: SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

Readings: 
Acts 4:32-35
I John 5:1-6
John 20:19-31

Anyone who thinks today’s tensions in the church between pre- and post-Vatican II theology and practice is unique lives in an historical vacuum. We’ve never existed without these tensions. There always have been those who believe Jesus wants us to keep repeating old formulas and behavior, and those who are convinced the risen Jesus constantly calls us to re-examine those principles and change our actions.

APRIL 11, 2009: THE EASTER VIGIL

Readings: 
Genesis 22:1-18
Exodus 14:15-15:1
Isaiah 55:1-li
Mark 16:1-8

(Ideally all nine readings should be proclaimed during tonight’s Vigil. But because of space limits, I can only comment on four.)

The fact that seven of tonight’s nine readings are from the Hebrew Scriptures is a sign of the ancient roots of this liturgy. It originally dated from a period before the Christian Scriptures were regarded as Bible. Our Christian ancestors in the faith originally turned to the Hebrew Scriptures to reflect on their experiences of the risen Jesus in their lives. It took two or three centuries before the Christian Scriptures were regarded as authoritative enough to fill that role. (Only after the 1970 reform of the lectionary did we return to the practice of having Hebrew Scripture readings proclaimed during our weekend liturgies.)
 

APRIL 9, 2009: EUCHARIST OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Readings: 
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
1Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15

Being a minister in a church which practices infant Baptism, I’m often asked, “Why doesn’t the church develop a sacrament in which we can make an adult commitment to Jesus?” My answer comes quickly: “We already have one!” (And I’m not referring to Confirmation.) The Christian sacrament of adult commitment is the Eucharist.

APRIL 5, 2009: SUNDAY OF THE LORD’S PASSION

Readings: 
Isaiah 50:4-7
Philippians 2:6-li
Mark 14:1-1 5:47

Two people can read the same biblical text and walk away with diametrically opposed messages. Like all good literature, Scripture offers different levels of interpretation. But before we get involved with those different levels, modern Scripture scholars try to surface the meaning the sacred author originally wanted us to take from his or her writing. That’s why, looking at today’s Philippians and Marcan passages through the eyes of Paul and Mark, we might discover a message we’d never anticipated nor heard before.

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