April 27

NT – Luke 23:13-43
Do you ever ponder the two criminals hanging to either side of Jesus? Do you think they were criminals together or were they just convicted at the same time of separate crimes? And what had they done that warranted crucifixion?
Go check out this website that has Josephus’ references to crucifixion. Josephus is our #1 reference to this time period in the Palestine. He was a Jew that turn coated on his fellows during the Jewish revolt. He was an educated, extremely well-connected man who was the sole survivor of a suicide pact and was imprisoned. After this, he had ‘revelation’ that Vespasian would be emperor and was eventually released.
Josephus' Wikipedia Biography

But back to the criminals. Crucifixion is extremely painful. Let’s take the mocker first. When you are in that much pain, how on earth can you be so hateful to someone who is undergoing what you are? I could understand the ‘save yourself and us’ but not the insults. My translation uses the verb ‘hurled’. That is vehement!
And the other criminal. What gave him his compassion for Jesus? And how did he know him?
When you read familiar Bible stories, one way to make them fresh and new for you is to figure out who YOU are in the story. Are you the mocking soldiers who make fun of the faith of others? The people who stood watching? The mocking criminal, the humble criminal?
For me, I see myself as the watching people. I know I should be at the feet of Jesus, weeping like the women. I HOPE I am not the mocking criminal and I know that in my arrogance, I am not the humble criminal. I am kind of a sideline person. One of the things this Bible study is doing is making me realize that God wants ’all in’ people. It isn’t enough to go on Sunday, put your check in the plate and work on a few committees. He expects Life Transformation and He expects me to transform myself and help others. I guess I should also identify people in the story that I WANT to be. I really don’t want to be a wailing woman. That really isn’t my style. I am much more the ‘let’s get things done’ and I am not crazy about crying in public. Maybe when I can figure out who I want to be, I can work on taking on those qualities.
I do love that tag line at the end of the passage and have used it more than once as I sat with the dying “this day, you shall be with me in Paradise.” THIS DAY.

Psalm 97:1-98:9
One of the things I learned in my Interfaith dinners this winter was that they do not use instruments in most Jewish synagogues. Only the most reformed will use instruments and then not during the High Holidays. When I asked why, Sandy from Or Hadash told me that it was because after the Temple was destroyed for good in AD 70, the rabbis said no more instruments.
The psalms mention a lot of instruments including those that are mentioned in today’s scripture – the lyre (or harp), trumpets, and the ram’s horn. Oh, I should mention, there is a special dispensation for the ram’s horn in the synagogue. The shofar is used to bring in the New Year.
Music is a conveyance of worship. However, when the music used in worship is not the music of the times, it is really hard to reach people through it.
I went to Evensong at St Phillips once and thought it was lovely and calming and meditative. That is until the middle schooler behind me started having a ‘when are we leaving, how much longer does the s*** go on, etc. etc. He was not calmed at all. As a matter of fact, it was painful to him.
As much as we would like worship to be just about God, if part of it is painful to the congregants, at least the majority of them, it won’t have the desired effect. Bad preaching, crummy sound system, lousy choir, no choir, out of tune instruments, bad instrumentalist, and probably the very worst of all, bad handbells.
I can say this now, 18 years and another church later, but I played in the world’s worst handbell choir. OMG! They had fights over whether the tablecloths needed to be ironed when really , we needed to be practicing the pieces. Actually, we needed to ditch one family who apparently THOUGHT they were musical but really had no rhythm and dang sure couldn’t read music. But we had the nicest choir director and after all, those ladies had sewed those tablecloths. But we were AWFUL.
Last weekend, Mt Vernon dedicated the handchimes to Dorothy Michie, one of the sweetest ladies ever to walk the face of the earth. Dorothy died last year but prior to that, she was a staunch choir member, gifted piano player and excellent handbell player. (But she wouldn’t have thrown out the ladies from my previous church either. She really was the sweetest woman.)
The handbell choir played the most beautiful piece. No one who sat there would think they weren’t doing their part for worship. May it always be so.

Here is one of the few contemporary Christian songs that I like.



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May your mediations be fruitful.