THOUGHTS FROM THE CENTER AISLE

Comments and Meditations from the Rev. Robert Bergner, Priest-in-Charge

Welcome to Thoughts from the Center Aisle.

What follows are mainly my reflections on lectionary scripture, but also other theological and spiritual musings. Sometimes there will be a full sermon, sometimes just notes and sketches.

Please feel free to comment in a constructive, civil way. I will be happy to learn what you have to say.

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Here are three things to keep in mind when reading, thinking about and discussing scripture:

The Bible is a multivocal compilation of documents written over the course of more than a thousand years. Its authors (with several authors sometimes team writing—willingly or not—the same document) say different things in different places—even within their own writings. And that's okay!
As with any text (or anything), each reader reads and interprets biblical text from the perspective of her or his own personal experience, education and preferences (which inevitably change over time). Like snowflakes, no two readers are alike and no two interpretations are the same.
The Bible was written in three ancient languages—Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. None of these languages have been used in their ancient form for hundreds, even thousands, of years. Those ancient languages are then translated in myriad variations into hundreds of languages that are spoken today. Given the impressive linguistic complexities of translating defunct languages and the transformation of life and culture that has taken place over several thousand years, it is nearly impossible that the sense we take from, say, a modern English translation of a biblical text is precisely what its original author or authors intended. Translation is interpretation.

Cheers,

Bob

Our Recent Posts

Reflections for Sunday, September 6, 2020

Rev. Bob’s Weekly Message, August 30, 2020

Dear Grace and St Peter’s, After a delightful, restful two weeks on Cape Cod, it is great to be back amongst you worshipping, serving, praying and raising a loud shout to God with psalms—well, maybe not the loud shouting due to ongoing public health restrictions. But, even with those restrictions, we have maintained a vibrant and active community life through our outdoor services at St John’s; our Zoom and Facebook worship services and conversations; our phone, email and text support for one another; Dinner for a Dollar take-out style; etc. Again and again you prove yourselves to be a faithful, loving, resourceful and resilient community. Nothing, it seems, can stop Grace and St Peter’s fr

Reflections for Sunday, August 16, 2020

Proper 15, Year A Given this morning’s somewhat surprising story about Jesus’ interaction with a Canaanite woman—or a Syrophoenician woman as the Gospel of Mark’s version would have it—I thought it might be fun and enlightening to listen in on an imaginary conversation between the authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark as they get together—socially distanced of course—to discuss whether or not to include this challenging incident in their narratives. Let’s see what they have to say. MARK: So, Matthew, what about that story about a snarky Jesus telling off the Syrophoenician woman — are you going to include that in your Good News? MATTHEW: Are you kidding, Mark? What does Jesus being rude

Sermon by Gretchen Pritchard, August 2, 2020

Year A, Proper 13 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” This is our last installment in the story of Jacob; next week our Old Testament reading will move on to the story of Jacob’s twelve sons—Joseph and his brothers. Our lectionary in fact is kind of maddening in the way it tells the stories of the Hebrew ancestors; it keeps leaving out important episodes, so that the parts that it does include are rob

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