Year C, Ordinary 33, 2019 – You Gotta Break Some Eggs if You Want to Make an Omelet

More Than Hearing

Hey everyone! Welcome to the last episode of Ordinary Time, Year C! Next week is Reign of Christ Sunday which simultaneously wraps up the year and welcomes in the next one. This week, we finish the long season begun in June with a psalm of praise, a fiery warning, encouragement to keep doing what is good, and Jesus’ response to a question about future events. We did the same texts three years ago so you can go see what other illustrations and special effects are on the menu from that show. For today, we’ll take a look at the passages and consider how each one addresses our habits and attitudes – which ones will survive intact in the egg basket and which ones will be broken in order for God to make something new out of them?

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Smarts for the Week

In the past couple weeks, I’ve been weakening and allowing other intelligences into the house when I open the door for the one I’m supposed to be emphasizing – I can’t help it, they’re so insistent! (And often pretty good!) So this week, while I do my best to pay attention to PEOPLE smart, NATURE and MUSIC creep in and sit in the corner, trying not to laugh. On the other hand, David is bravely sticking with the plan and has some very interesting ways of using MATH smart for the texts. Download the worksheet below to see what didn’t make the cut for the podcast!

PEOPLE smart – [timestamp]Download

MATH smart – [timestamp]Download

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Texts for the Week

Malachi 4:1-2a – [timestamp]

In the words of Joey Lawrence, “Whoa.” At least that was my reaction to verse one in this selection. Yet, the image of fire burning evildoers to oblivion – while graphic – is not the end. In the very next verse, new life is promised. Taking a page out of NATURE smart, ask your congregation to consider ways that humans are refined through heat and pressure (difficult jobs, challenging relationships, adolescence, etc.). What new thing came out of that time?

For MATH smart, David looked up some experiments done in Australia and California about combustion. In one study, scientists examined how leaves decomposition impact flammability. In the other one, they measured temperature and time until combustion. The connection to Malachi’s vision is metaphorical – how does one’s ethical composition and spiritual orientation determine flammability?

• PEOPLE smart – [timestamp]
  • Commentary by Fred Gaiser, Working Preacher
  • Commentary by Bruce Cromwell, A Plain Account
  • Soulful Celebration
  • Bugs Bunny clip
• MATH smart – [timestamp]
  • Here is an interesting experiment from Australia comparing the decomposition rate of various types of leaf litter and the flammability of the same various species of leaves.
  • Here is another study on ignition times and ignition temperatures of various species of plants from the California chaparral.

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Psalm 98 – [timestamp]

Sometimes the logic element of MATH smart really gets in the way. And other times, its nature can be used to great effect for a jarring illustration. David suggests that praise is illogical; or at least it steps beyond the factual and specific that MATH smart people find energizing. So, to illustrate how to use this psalm of praise, consider whether or not we would burst into worship and song and dance inside the US Supreme Court when the justices render an opinion. Not very likely. Yet, the psalmist sings and encourages musicians to play joyfully for God’s just judgements.

In the commentary linked below, James Howell says: “Praise is our amazement at God and God’s greatness, our recognition of the power and tenderness of the creator. […] Praise doesn’t ask “What have you done for me lately?” but instead exclaims “How great Thou art!”” For a PEOPLE smart special effect, give your congregation some time to write their own psalm of praise, recognizing that individuals will have different levels of personal involvement in this task. At the end of your service, ask everyone to say at least one verse of their psalm – at the same time – as the benediction!

• MATH smart – [timestamp]
• PEOPLE smart – [timestamp]
  • commentary by James Howell, Working Preacher

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2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 – [timestamp]

This passage from Thessalonians has PEOPLE smart infused throughout it. These verses are all about the relationships people have with one another in this particular fellowship. Paul has a great deal of advice and startles us with the command in verse ten. Up to that point, folks are likely unified in agreement with the apostle and then suddenly, we begin looking for the idlers among us. Verse thirteen is the key to interpretation; those who are not work to model Jesus’ grace, mercy, and compassion are the idlers. This takes the steam out of our accusations, doesn’t it?

For MATH smart, pull out one of those mystical numbers games that go around from time to time. We have two linked below. The idea behind them is that people are so distracted by the answer, they don’t notice the careful manipulation of the formula. In a similar way, we get sidetracked by verse ten and forget to pay attention to and obey verse thirteen.

• PEOPLE smart – [timestamp]
  • Commentary by Edward Pillar, Working Preacher (We both used this!)
• MATH smart – [timestamp]
  • Magical 111
  • Age-birth-year

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Luke 21:5-19 – [timestamp]

Once again, MATH smart is a challenge! That is until David recognized that the logic in this passage is not our logic, but Jesus’ logic. The disciples are surprised to hear him say the massive temple stones will be thrown down and want to know when this will happen. Jesus doesn’t really answer that question. His response to them goes in a variety of directions and to illustrate that, David supplies a recipe for Jesus’ version of scrambled eggs. Check out the worksheet for yourself!

Jesus is re-directing the disciples’ focus from their own curiosity to what he wants them to be doing until the temple falls and afterward. Far from inviting us believers to adopt a superior attitude about our relationship as those “in” with Jesus, this passage tells us that we will lose all privilege and be “hated by all because of [Jesus’] name”. We will join the marginalized, the outcast, the reviled, and the despised for Jesus’ sake. For PEOPLE smart, break your congregation into smaller groups and have them ponder the following: Who are the people that we would be willing to be identified with for the sake of Jesus’ gospel of righteousness, justice, truth, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness? Who are we willing to lose all our eggs for so that God can feed others?

• MATH smart – [timestamp]
• PEOPLE smart – [timestamp]
  • famous scene in Spartacus

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Photo by Caroline Attwood on Unsplash. Used by permission.