those pesky brackets again

I love the Episcopal Lectionary. I'm sorry to see it go away for the RCL; I like having it right in the back of my Book of Common Prayer. Yet one thing I am hopeful for, and I think happens some in the RCL; that we might be forced to hear those parts of the Bible that make us uncomfortable. Psalm 58 with its breaking of teeth, for example. Or maybe, all of the Gospel lesson for 2 Lent, year C. The brackets which set the first half of the lesson apart make it optional. It is optional because it is hard to deal with. It is hard to deal with because it is, gulp, exclusive. We want Jesus to tell us "it is going to be OK." Instead he tells us, "there are a goodly number who will not enter the Kingdom, and even more who you think shouldn't, who will in fact dine with God."

This is not a message we like to hear. Especially as bishops send more and more functional Unitarian/Universalists to seminary, this passage, left to the BCP Lectionary would be ignored over and over again. Of course, left to the RCL, it won't even be an option (the RCL includes only the second half of the text - I guess there's a lot more to work on than I originally thought).

Anyway, we need to hear the radically particular message of Jesus. Like with the people of Israel, God chose to work in one man, in first century Palestine, for the redemption of all the world. We can debate the wisdom of this plan of God if you like, but after 2000 years, I'd say this Way has some momentum behind it. Still, we must hear that there will be those who God has not chosen (for you predestination folk) or who, when faced with the pain of an all-loving God who they over and over again rejected, will once again choose to go their own way, to take the wide door of temptation over the narrow door of freedom. We need to hear this so that we might be prepared to again and again choose the right door, the door that leads to everlasting life and perfect communion with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.