Living by the Book this Lent

 

… I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. BCP p. 265

We are called to read scripture more diligently during the season of Lent. What keeps you/us from accepting this invitation?

1. I’m too busy; I don’t have time.

2. I’ve tried and I always get stuck.

3. I’ve tried but it doesn’t make sense.

4. I hate to be crass, but what do I get out of it? Why is it important or valuable?

5. I find it boring.

6. I find the language hard. The names are unpronounceable. And don’t me started on the begats!

7. I can read the words but my brain just goes blank.

8. I get tired of failing; I feel guilty.

Some thoughts on making changes

1. Find a translation you like, trust, and can understand. NRSV is the benchmark, but what are some of your favorites? (NIV, NASB, TLB, Jerusalem Bible, etc.)

2. Decide what and how much you want to read in a sitting. 

1. A book (e.g. Gospel, Psalm, Proverbs, etc.)

2. A topic (e.g. Shepherd, Light, Door, Water, etc.)

3. Random passages

4. Lectionary (Daily or weekly)

5. Etc.

3. Find a day/time to carve out as “Me and God” time. If not daily, every other day, or weekly. Schedule it. Block it out. Outside of "lights & siren" emergencies, keep your appointment.

4. Find a friend (or enemy?) with whom you can share what you’ve been reading and what you’ve found helpful, confounding, or irritating. Being accountable to another person helps.

5. Read your passage silently. Think about it, praying as you think. Then read it aloud (or ask your partner to read it to you). Think about it prayerfully once again. Ask: What did I hear aloud that I missed while reading silently?

6. Look up words you’re unfamiliar with. Follow center column references to see where they take you. Read the footnotes and when they show other options for words or phrases, ask how the passage might change if you went with the alternative.

7. Keep a notepad or journal by your side and note questions or observations that arise from what you’re reading.

What’s a good process for reading or studying a passage? Three Keys:

1. OBSERVATION: What do you see?

2. INTERPRETATION: What does it mean?

3. APPLICATION: How does it work?

Let’s Practice #1

Psalm 23:1

Adonai is my shepherd; I lack nothing. (Complete Jewish Bible)

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. (NRSVUE)

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. (NIV)

God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing. (The Message)

OBSERVATION: What do you see? Bombard the passage with questions.

INTERPRETATION: What does it mean?

APPLICATION: How does it work for me? For my church? This is a place to brainstorm (alone or with others). Does this challenge what you've always thought, done, or assumed?

Note: Adonai = Lord (when referring to God). LORD (all caps) = YHWH (God’s Name). Jewish translations, by custom, avoid using the LORD’s Name, substituting it with Adonai.

Let’s Practice #2

John 9:1-5

As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” NRSV

9 1-2 Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?” 3-5 Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.” The Message

9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” NIV

9 As he was walking along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 “Master,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it a result of his own sins or those of his parents?” 3 “Neither,” Jesus answered. “But to demonstrate the power of God. 4 All of us must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent me, for there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end. 5 But while I am still here in the world, I give it my light.” TLB

OBSERVATION: What do you see? Bombard the passage with questions.

INTERPRETATION: What does it mean?

APPLICATION: How does it work for me? For my church? 

Proper 28    The Sunday closest to November 16 Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP p. 236)

RESOURCES FOR STUDY

Resources the Book of Common Prayer provides:

Sundays (Revised Common Lectionary) and Holy Days (BCP p. 888ff)

Three Year Cycle (A (Matthew), B (Mark), C (Luke). The Gospel of John is scattered across all three years.

Each Cycle begins in Advent

Daily Lectionary (BCP p. 934ff)

Two Year Cycle (One and Two)

Each Cycle begins in Advent, with each Year beginning in Advent where most of the year is either even or odd (e.g. 2026 is Year 2 (starting in Advent, 2025), and Year 1 will begin in Advent, 2026 where the majority of Year 1 will be odd (2027)).

The Book of Common Prayer is available online: https://www.bcponline.org

Sunday Lectionary Readings available online: https://www.lectionarypage.net/

Daily Office Readings available online: https://www.dailyoffice2019.com/

The benefit of following a lectionary is that it provides the reader with an orderly means of working through the Bible. On the other hand, it provides so much material at one sitting (or two if divided for use during Morning and Evening Prayer) that it can be difficult to find one passage upon which to meditate.

Another wrinkle you can add to your study is to compare one or more translations of what you’re reading side by side to see. Sometimes another translation will shed fresh light or meaning to a passage, or clarify one that might be confusing.

Note: Not all translations are alike or equal in scholarship or readability. “Translation” generally implies a reading that is closer to word-for-word from the ancient texts to English, while “Paraphrase” generally implies more of a thought-for-thought rendering of a text from one language into English.

E.g. 1 Corinthians 16:20

• Translation (NIV): "Greet one another with a holy kiss".

• Paraphrase (The Message): "Pass the greetings around with holy embraces!".

• Paraphrase (The Living Bible): "Give each other a loving handshake when you meet".

• Difference: The translations keep the historical "kiss," while paraphrases adapt the gesture to modern cultural norms (hugs/handshakes).

Study Bibles utilizing the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV – the one mostly used and read in mainline churches on Sundays):

The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha (Oxford), 1991

The SBL Study Bible – NRSV Updated (Harper One), 2023

Study Bible for use with groups (Conservative/Evangelical flavor):

Serendipity New Testament for Groups (New International Version (1990), Updated versions/revisions available)

Paraphrase Bible: The Message, Eugene H. Peterson (Navpress, 2002)

Other Bible Resources:

Holy Bible from the Ancient Eastern Text (Translated into English by George M. Lamsa from the Aramaic of the Peshitta (Syriac), which is, itself, a translation of the original Greek texts back into Aramaic).

TANAKH – The Holy Scriptures (Jewish Publication Society, 1985), an English translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), AKA Torah, Nevi’im, and Kethuvim.

Online Bible resources:

https://www.biblegateway.com/ (Searchable, multiple languages and translations, including a variety of European languages)

https://biblehub.com/ (Similar to Biblegateway)

When PawPaw Goes Wack-a-doodle

Some years ago I was patrolling the streets of Spokane (the mid-1970s, for those keeping track) and found myself behind a car headed eastbound Third Avenue on the edge of downtown. The driver was driving slowly but busting every traffic light at every intersection -- entering each intersection a few seconds after his light went red.

I pulled in behind him and turned on my own blue lights, honked a few times to get his attention, but he continued to roll along with nary a care in the world. As he continued blowing red lights I finally hit the siren, which got his attention. He pulled ever so slowly and cautiously into the McDonald's parking lot far enough so he was off the street, but not far enough to let me clear my lane.

I got out of my patrol car and began to walk up to the driver's door when I noted his car was rolling back toward the patrol car (as the driveway and parking lot had an incline). I grabbed his car's door-handle and managed to stop the roll-back as the driver rolled down his window. I judged him to be in his eighties and said, "Excuse me, sir, but could you put your car in park? Your car is rolling backwards."

He was very nice and a gentle soul; I explained the reason for the stop, and he was surprised that he had gone through any red lights. He thought they were green, but he trusted my judgment. His son, you see, was also a police officer, and I recognized the name on his license matched the name of one of our detective sergeants. 

I was sure his driving days were over, but chose not to cite him for the violations. Call it professional courtesy. I did call his son and suggested that it might be time for him to have that difficult talk with his dad that no child ever wants to have. "You're no longer safe behind the wheel of a car. We love you too much to risk having you out there where you or someone else could get hurt."

It seems we have the same issue on the national stage. It comes as no surprise that I do not like #47; I don't like his character, his policies, or his attitude, but this is not about that. It's not about him falling asleep during meetings, or rage-tweeting at 3 a.m. (although those are symptomatic of "what's wrong with PawPaw"). 

His actions are far more reckless. Sending troops into cities without legal reasons. Ignoring court orders. Attacking countries without authorization. Kidnapping foreign leaders.  Threatening to annex countries the way a toddler grabs candy bars at the checkout. These are not normal behaviors for anyone, let alone the leader of  the US of A.

If #47 is facing a mental health crisis, whether caused by age, brain decay, hardening of the arteries, or anything else, I would want someone to have that hard talk with him. It would be bad enough if he wanted to roll around solo in the president's great black beast, but he has the keys to Armageddon. It is way past time to take away those keys, not because the guy's a madman, evil incarnate, or anything like that, but because he is a danger to himself and the nation, and it's time for his family, the people in his party, to have that hard talk with him. His actions demand action -- not talk or more talk. Action!

Call it what it is: professional courtesy.

Christmas Halleluiah

Sung By Saint Paul's Choir

Saint Paul's Episcopal Church

Mount Vernon, WA

December 24, 2025

JJ Cully on Piano

The Rev. Keith Axberg, Solo

Music by Leonard Cohen

 

The Light that Delights

Christmas Morning - Year A

• Isaiah 52:7-10

• Hebrews 1:1-4,(5-12)

• John 1:1-14

• Psalm 98

Collect for Christmas III: Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and to be born [this day] of a pure virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Good morning. Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! God Jul! Joyeux Noel!

There are so many ways to say Merry Christmas in so many languages.

What is the language of God? This (point to Nativity set) … this is the language of love.

If you were here last night, you heard the story we all know so well. The story of Mary and Joseph; royal decrees, people scrambling around the Middle East so they could change from being undocumented migrants to becoming fully documented tax payers; shepherds in the fields watching the flocks by night; angels dropping in making bold announcements; all of the local hotels and motels booked up; smelly barns and feeding troughs.

I saw a cartoon the other day where a cow is standing next to a manger with a little golden halo hovering over it, and the cow says, “Hey waiter, there’s a son of god in my food!”

Christmas is so rich and full of imagery. Layer and layer of story upon story. You don’t hardly know how or where to unwrap it. I have to admit, wrapping has become a lost art in our home.

When I was growing up, my mother was a master gift-wrapper. You could tell she spent hours cutting all the paper just right, neatly folded corners, ribbons wrapped this way and that way as if they had been wrapped by Leonardo DaVinci or Michelangelo. Bows. None of those store-bought bows. Bows made by hand, lovingly crafted, those little streamers curling down ever so elegantly.

The wrapping was more of a gift than what was inside those boxes. But come Christmas morning, four kids and a Swede tore into those gifts like an E-5 tornado through a trailer park. The hours of wrapping reduced to rubble in a matter of minutes. Now THAT was a wonder to behold!

Nowadays, I confess I inherited none of my mother’s gift-wrapping skills, or care. Hey, it’s Christmas. It’s a day to be honest. Gifts go into store-bought gift-bags (used and reused until they’re just too torn and tattered to really hold or hide their contents). 

When I do wrap, I use an obscene amount of paper and tape to get the job done. I’ve got spools of ribbon in our little wrapping paper storage bag that must go back to the Truman or Eisenhower Administrations – that’s how seldom I use ribbons. I do usually go to the trouble of adding store bought bows, though – it’s the thought that counts.

That sure sounds like a cop-out, doesn’t it?

No, what's outside may not look like much. At least I don’t use duct tape – or at least not as of yet – but it’s what’s inside the package that counts. My goal is always to find gifts that will please the recipient. I suspect that’s what we all do, isn’t it?

Christmas is like the story from Luke. It’s earthy; it’s messy; it’s smelly; it’s dangerous; it’s uncomfortable, like nine-months-pregnant Mary climbing up onto a donkey to travel 70 miles so Joseph can register for the joy of paying Roman taxes. Oh, Joy to the world … Bah, humbug!

But that was last night. Last night we got the typical, noisy, messy, chaotic Christmas Story we all know and love. While the world has been singing Christmas carols since before Halloween, we’ve spent the past four weeks working through those more somber, less familiar Advent tunes we hardly ever hear or know how to sing. And that’s OK. 

Advent is the wrapping paper on the gift that is Christmas. Yesterday we came together and finally got to sing the songs we know; we got to see the church lit up and spruced up; all the candles lit up, including the Christ candle; the tree standing there pointing skyward, towards heaven. The poinsettias with their red and pink flowers – which aren’t really flowers – they’re called “bracts” – but there they are, brightening up the sanctuary with that outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace of God – signs of life in the dead of winter.

Today, the gift has been unwrapped. Today, John shows us what’s inside the advent package that got unwrapped last night by Rilla and the crowd that gathered here in the candle-lit church.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God!

Today, the crowd is smaller; the setting is more intimate; the atmosphere more serene. There is still lots of day left. I suspect we still have things to do, places to go, family and friends with whom to break bread, share laughs and memories, tell stories, maybe sit and notice empty chairs, reminding us of saints who are no longer with us. 

But that’s life; that’s love. God enters in, not as a stranger, but as a Word: a word dwelling in our hearts as we make space for the Word to be born within us. 

As the dust settles from the chaos of last night, the manger, shepherds, long travel, John invites we (who are also “dust”) to take our seats and rest a moment. Take a few moments to ponder the meaning behind the child who was born in Bethlehem all those many years ago.

Who was he? Who is he? 

“The light of the world,” says John. Nothing more. Nothing less. 

When I get up in the morning, there’s nothing that delights me more than throwing open the shades and letting daylight into the house. I enjoy the peace that often comes with darkness, but when the sun rises, I want to rise with it.

Jesus is the light of the world, and today we celebrate the WORD that has come into our world – as dark, dangerous, chaotic, and crazy as it can be – and John invites us to throw open the shades so that the Son of God (pun fully intended) may come into our lives so that we may better see who we are as the people of God.

There are so many ways to say Merry Christmas in so many languages.

“What is the language of God?” we asked at the beginning.

This (point to Nativity set) … the language of God is love. O come let us adore him. Amen.

Sermon delivered to the people of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (Mount Vernon, WA) 12/25/2025 by the Rev. Keith Axberg, Ret.