unday Dec. 4 -Ps. 85 has long been a favorite of mine, especially its tender ending. I picture the ending verses as righteousness (right relations) and peace as separated lovers who see each other again after a long absence, like the reunion scene in Russia in Reds. They are intertwined concepts. They should not be strangers. When have you seen them come together in your life? Where do you wish so much for them to come together?
Monday -Carly Simon sang that anticipation is keeping me waiting.” Another word for anticipation could be expectancy. I'm doing an on-line Advent series through the Upper Room of Nashville, and they are stressing this aspect of Advent. What are you anticipating in your life? What can you hardly wait for? What do you crave in your spiritual life? Are you half afraid of desiring some virute, some change, some dream?
Tuesday-Pause. In the midst of all of the expectations, pause. Take a little break. Breathe deeply and fully for a bit. Pray a quick prayer: breathe on me breath of God. Take a moment and examine your to do list. What could be eliminated, not lessened, eliminated? All during Advent, consider taking a mini Sabbath, a pause to collect and refresh.
Wednesday-Different virtues abound as celebrating Advent has expanded. I have seen peace, purity,joy, or consolation among others as the Second Sunday's virtues. We, through
Christian Ed’s good offices, have selected peace as the theme for the candle.Open a newspaper and pray for peace in the troubled lands. Pray for peace in communities ripped by violence. Consider praying for inner peace in oneself. Pray for inner peace to enter those whose hearts and minds are filled with rage and hate, even of themselves.
Thursday-The New York Times always asks its readers to consider the neediest at the time of year. Notice: not the needy, the neediest. Yes, we are right in helping out those in need of financial assistance. In this rich country, my mind goes toward a different definition of the neediest: maybe the mentally ill, or the heartbroken and the lonely. They too require Christmas gifts, but they are far different than what can be placed in the red buckets at WalMart.
Friday- Joseph gets short shrift. After all, he is the main character in Matthew’s Christmas story. When i was a child, we were taught that Joseph was very old. (Only later, did I figure out that they could protect Mary’s status as virgin that way). We imagine him as a carpenter, but the Greek word could cover any manual craftsman. In children’s stories, Joseph is usually pictured as an extraordinarily kind and wise father, an exemplar. maybe he was, so Jesus could use paternal language so easily in addressing God, his heavenly Father.
Saturday-This is the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Its careful cadence and tone equals Scripture for many people. Here’s a little project. Compare the KJV to other Bible versions and set out your likes and dislikes. Pick a passage at random, or compare some favorites to different translations. Do different insights or interpretations emerge as you compare them? Read with a literary eye too. What is appealing about the form, movement, and word choice in different translations?
Friday, November 30, 2012
Friday column on Advent
I was raised Roman Catholic, so the start of the church
year, Advent, comes easily to me. Over the years, especially since Vatican II
in the 60s, a number of Protestant churches have grown to adopt more and more
from the liturgical year. Our reformation traditions argued against this, but
for the sake of being ecumenical we have adopted practices that were once more
the province of Catholics
Immediately, one notices that we don’t agree on the color of
the season any more. It usually was a shade of purple, but a deep blue is
gaining popularity. Advent precedes Christmas of course, and Lent precedes Easter.
Both periods were used to prepare, to prepare with penance and repentance, for
two major events on the Christian calendar, and purple was the symbolic color
for that activity. The shift to blue shifts the focus from repentance, as part
of our aversion to speaking of sin. Second, it opens scope for the creative
imagination. Blue is a royal color, so it links the end of the church year,
Christ the King, to its start. Third, it heightens the sense of the darkness
before the dawn.
Then, we sometimes assign a meaning to each of four candles
for each Sunday either to highlight some part of the Christian story or virtue,
or something from the readings for the day. Four candles are in a circle, a symbol of eternity, and
evergreen for the perdurance of life itself often is garland. A Christ candle occupies the center position,
to be lit for Christmas itself.
For church planners, Advent is most challenging. The culture
is filled with Christmas carols in the malls but not at church. The idea is
four Sundays to prepare for the first Advent, the first arrival, of Jesus in Bethlehem , and the Second
Arrival, presentation of Jesus at the culmination of the age. I have people
call me a Grinch for not singing Christmas songs until the third Sunday in
Advent, but the same people want to follow the culture exactly and stop singing
Christmas songs right at Christmas. They seem undeterred by the twelve days of
Christmas starting at Christmas, as they would much prefer them to end at
Christmas, just like the malls. Everybody loves Christmas carols, but Advent
hymns are in most people’s top ten list.
A part of me thinks this all is much ado about nothing. At
the same time, care with a worship environment tells a story, one that starts
to get bred in the marrow. Songs and symbols speak more loudly and clearly than
words alone at times. Our failure with Advent has led to the excrescence of
left behind theology. It purports to be biblical but is liturgically deficient
in its understanding. it grasps only the piece of fear and ending and loses
utterly the sense of restoration and new beginnings in apocalyptic material.
In the end, Christians view time itself as God’s creation,
and we get to share in it and help manage it wisely. So, we can dare to cut
against the secular calendar’s demands, especially with the Sabbath. For
Christians, history is not cyclical, not meaningless repetition, but it moves
in a direction, as an extension of what we call Providence . Christmas point us to God’s deep
involvement in our world, to the point of Incarnation. It did not end there.
Advent points us to a glorious time of completion. One fine day, God’s way in
the world will be allied with our lives, no longer in opposition but living in
sweet heavenly peace.
Monday, November 26, 2012
OT Notes first sunday Advent 2012 Jer. 33:14-16, Ps. 25:1-10
Jer.33:14-16
this section is not in the Septuagint, so it may be earlier. Would need to check if it is in the DSS, so it could be some sort of addition, or LXX could be edited I suppose, but we usually think shorter material is closer.to original, this closes the little book of consolation, and that in itself could be a good entry point for Advent.
1) we pick up on Jer. 23:5-6 as an extension of hope.
2) righteous Branch shares first sounds (ts) with sprout-are we correct in assuming that the sprout comes from something cut off or even chopped down? What are some good images or vignettes that would make clear a sprout emerging from the ashes, such as the phoenix?
3) Please notice the new name of Judah: God is our righteousness-to me righteousness in the OT is relational, but that includes our relations with the least of these: the traditional concern of Jewish ethics, the widow, the alien, the orphan.(A good example of this reading of righteousness is the book Mighty from their Thrones by Walsh).
4) Since 9/11 we read the hope for safety more directly. Of course, crime’s evil power makes us aware of personal safety, as well as the media reports of disasters of all types.
5) The image here obviously is reworked over time. How do Christians cleave to the same image and how have we changed it? We still do not see its promise fulfilled. How do you handle that in Advent? Can we, should we, spiritualize it?
Ps. 25:1-10
We live in a great period of Psalms study with names such as James Limburg, james Mays, our own Giddings-Lovejoy member Clinton McCann, Patrick Miller, William Holladay, and many others who may be connected to the Psalms group meeting in SBL. (I wonder if it says anything about my spirit that I mistype Psalms so frequently? for that matter, I mistype spiritual all the time too)For this psalm, it is an acrostic, so it has a device for easier recognition and recall. Also, it is very much concerned with learning. So, we could use some time to discuss Christian education and learning in differing venues. I was going through some CIFs (church information forms/want ads, in Presbyterian jargon) and noted the small percentage of active CE involvement v. the number of worshippers.
1) This is a plea against real enemies. i tend to read them as internal or external. I tend to include the enemy of cancer as well. At the same time one lifts up soul/nephesh/whole self to god.
2)put to shame is mentioned twice quickly. shame is a sense that we oftne repress or ignore, and it may do us well to reflect on it and its cure in salvation
3) 3-4 have the image of God as teacher, of torah as instruction/teaching more than law
4) 5-6 touch on the divine memory what should god be mindful of in hesed/steadfast love and what God should forget, sins.
5) v. 10 tells us of the paths of v. 3-6) who are the humble do you think? Is this a virtue we honor in 2012? Do we see humility as a virtue any longer? Can we dare to call most American Christians to be of the humble?7) in v. 8 how does god instruct sinners? In your experience how does god instruct sinners?8) We only have to extend a bit the reading and we get the big three Hebrew words for sin. hata=hamartia =to miss the target-pata=transgressions/rebellion, and guilty -awon- has a sense of being twisted/bent out of shape/pushed down.this is a welcome antidote to our current view of sin as mistake. These views are all much deeper and less cognitive than our current way of speaking of sin.
this section is not in the Septuagint, so it may be earlier. Would need to check if it is in the DSS, so it could be some sort of addition, or LXX could be edited I suppose, but we usually think shorter material is closer.to original, this closes the little book of consolation, and that in itself could be a good entry point for Advent.
1) we pick up on Jer. 23:5-6 as an extension of hope.
2) righteous Branch shares first sounds (ts) with sprout-are we correct in assuming that the sprout comes from something cut off or even chopped down? What are some good images or vignettes that would make clear a sprout emerging from the ashes, such as the phoenix?
3) Please notice the new name of Judah: God is our righteousness-to me righteousness in the OT is relational, but that includes our relations with the least of these: the traditional concern of Jewish ethics, the widow, the alien, the orphan.(A good example of this reading of righteousness is the book Mighty from their Thrones by Walsh).
4) Since 9/11 we read the hope for safety more directly. Of course, crime’s evil power makes us aware of personal safety, as well as the media reports of disasters of all types.
5) The image here obviously is reworked over time. How do Christians cleave to the same image and how have we changed it? We still do not see its promise fulfilled. How do you handle that in Advent? Can we, should we, spiritualize it?
Ps. 25:1-10
We live in a great period of Psalms study with names such as James Limburg, james Mays, our own Giddings-Lovejoy member Clinton McCann, Patrick Miller, William Holladay, and many others who may be connected to the Psalms group meeting in SBL. (I wonder if it says anything about my spirit that I mistype Psalms so frequently? for that matter, I mistype spiritual all the time too)For this psalm, it is an acrostic, so it has a device for easier recognition and recall. Also, it is very much concerned with learning. So, we could use some time to discuss Christian education and learning in differing venues. I was going through some CIFs (church information forms/want ads, in Presbyterian jargon) and noted the small percentage of active CE involvement v. the number of worshippers.
1) This is a plea against real enemies. i tend to read them as internal or external. I tend to include the enemy of cancer as well. At the same time one lifts up soul/nephesh/whole self to god.
2)put to shame is mentioned twice quickly. shame is a sense that we oftne repress or ignore, and it may do us well to reflect on it and its cure in salvation
3) 3-4 have the image of God as teacher, of torah as instruction/teaching more than law
4) 5-6 touch on the divine memory what should god be mindful of in hesed/steadfast love and what God should forget, sins.
5) v. 10 tells us of the paths of v. 3-6) who are the humble do you think? Is this a virtue we honor in 2012? Do we see humility as a virtue any longer? Can we dare to call most American Christians to be of the humble?7) in v. 8 how does god instruct sinners? In your experience how does god instruct sinners?8) We only have to extend a bit the reading and we get the big three Hebrew words for sin. hata=hamartia =to miss the target-pata=transgressions/rebellion, and guilty -awon- has a sense of being twisted/bent out of shape/pushed down.this is a welcome antidote to our current view of sin as mistake. These views are all much deeper and less cognitive than our current way of speaking of sin.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Christ the King '12 Jn18:33-7
Christ the King 11/25 John 18:33-7
The dust has settled after our major election. So Christ the King Sunday, a political acclamation closes our liturgical year. As a democracy, We have trouble with the word kingdom, so we do well with the word, regime or realm, or even politics or zone, or maybe God’s way in the world.Even so, it conjures up the specter of power, and that troubles me. far too often, it seems that we transfer political power as coercive, as a command over others. Jesus does not seem to engage in power in that way. instead, Jesus seems to relinquish power over others. Instead Jesus seeks to share power and demonstrate how people can discover power within their own lives and spirit.
I taught political science and still enjoy government and politics from the sidelines, but I resent and resist partisan politics intruding in worship. Christian ethics do engage political decisions.I am personally quite strict on separation of church and state, but I rather suspect folks complain about the intrusion of politics into church only when their prejudices and preferences are challenged..My daughter had a good discussion with an old friend, who like her labors under the cloud of being the child of a pastor. Her friend looks at prayer almost soley as a power ploy, to get what he wants, as soon as possible, but typcially of his generation, he want sit yesterday if truth be told. When I look at all of the trouble around, I get annoyed with the very idea of Christ the King Sunday. I grant that it anticipates a time of God’s way finally being established. I accept it as a wonderful image of the future that draws us toward it like a magnet. Still it seems so distant, as I detect but traces of it as it seems to be in danger of being submerged in a sea of troubles.
I had the privilege of seeing the movie Lincoln last week.It cap[tures some of what I am struggling with. You won’t believe the effrontery of his advisors. You will see clearly the conflicting expectations and the tightrope he constantly walks.You will see the constant tension between the exigencies of the future and the limits of the possible within the present moments.
I am playing with the idea of a Venn diagram on church and state. Church and state do touch, even intersect, but much of their concerns are different in kind and degree. One circle is formed when Jesus tells Pilate my kingdom is not of this world. I am loath to make too much of a preposition, but here goes. Jesus says of, because he means the source of his kingdom is not here on earth. At the same time, that kingdom does intersect with the earthly political world.The church reflects political decisions in its structure and its decisions. Perhaps nowhere does this get exposed than in the areas the church does not take up or address..That is not a safe place to be. pilate and Herod represent the earthly kingdom. i have long admired David Bowie’s performance as Pontius Pilate where he speaks in a conspiratorial whisper, a sort of ultimate bureaucrat.
I like James Madison’s view that politics can corrupt a religion, but religion can corrupt the work of government as well. I think that the colloquy with Pilate points out the danger of assuming that our particular, partisan political choices are exactly equivalent to the way of God in our world. In the end, power over others by force is a fragile thing. In our lifetime so many dictators have fallen, and even the Soviet Union flew apart.If anything Christ the King tell us of the immense power of divine love and human love to shape a world of our dreams, one day, one fine day.
The dust has settled after our major election. So Christ the King Sunday, a political acclamation closes our liturgical year. As a democracy, We have trouble with the word kingdom, so we do well with the word, regime or realm, or even politics or zone, or maybe God’s way in the world.Even so, it conjures up the specter of power, and that troubles me. far too often, it seems that we transfer political power as coercive, as a command over others. Jesus does not seem to engage in power in that way. instead, Jesus seems to relinquish power over others. Instead Jesus seeks to share power and demonstrate how people can discover power within their own lives and spirit.
I taught political science and still enjoy government and politics from the sidelines, but I resent and resist partisan politics intruding in worship. Christian ethics do engage political decisions.I am personally quite strict on separation of church and state, but I rather suspect folks complain about the intrusion of politics into church only when their prejudices and preferences are challenged..My daughter had a good discussion with an old friend, who like her labors under the cloud of being the child of a pastor. Her friend looks at prayer almost soley as a power ploy, to get what he wants, as soon as possible, but typcially of his generation, he want sit yesterday if truth be told. When I look at all of the trouble around, I get annoyed with the very idea of Christ the King Sunday. I grant that it anticipates a time of God’s way finally being established. I accept it as a wonderful image of the future that draws us toward it like a magnet. Still it seems so distant, as I detect but traces of it as it seems to be in danger of being submerged in a sea of troubles.
I had the privilege of seeing the movie Lincoln last week.It cap[tures some of what I am struggling with. You won’t believe the effrontery of his advisors. You will see clearly the conflicting expectations and the tightrope he constantly walks.You will see the constant tension between the exigencies of the future and the limits of the possible within the present moments.
I am playing with the idea of a Venn diagram on church and state. Church and state do touch, even intersect, but much of their concerns are different in kind and degree. One circle is formed when Jesus tells Pilate my kingdom is not of this world. I am loath to make too much of a preposition, but here goes. Jesus says of, because he means the source of his kingdom is not here on earth. At the same time, that kingdom does intersect with the earthly political world.The church reflects political decisions in its structure and its decisions. Perhaps nowhere does this get exposed than in the areas the church does not take up or address..That is not a safe place to be. pilate and Herod represent the earthly kingdom. i have long admired David Bowie’s performance as Pontius Pilate where he speaks in a conspiratorial whisper, a sort of ultimate bureaucrat.
I like James Madison’s view that politics can corrupt a religion, but religion can corrupt the work of government as well. I think that the colloquy with Pilate points out the danger of assuming that our particular, partisan political choices are exactly equivalent to the way of God in our world. In the end, power over others by force is a fragile thing. In our lifetime so many dictators have fallen, and even the Soviet Union flew apart.If anything Christ the King tell us of the immense power of divine love and human love to shape a world of our dreams, one day, one fine day.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Devotions-Week of Nov, 25
November 25 Christ the King is difficult for me in some ways. I do like that Roman Catholics pray for their separated brethren on this day. My trouble is the word king as an American. Indeed, I wonder if using the word is a projection onto jesus of our conceptions of what power should look like.How did Jesus use power during his life? How should the church seek to use or renounce power as being coercive instead of empowering?
Monday-This week closes the church year. So, it discloses our arbitrary divisions of time. It is a bold act of the church to refuse to fit its calendar with the secular calendar.When the two conflict, the church seems to lose. It comes to a liturgical conflict soon, when we decide when to start Christmas songs in church when the radio has been playing them since before Thanksgiving.
Tuesday-I saw the wonderful new film Lincoln recently in Edwardsville.I wrote a review for my online column for the Telegraph and on my blog. I don't know if I have ever seen a movie that so well matches nobility with political machinations, private and public grief, and the value and impact of storytelling by Lincoln as much as this film.It’s good that it came out in November for the is one of our secular national saints, and in thanksgiving that such a miraculous man rose to power when he did.
Wednesday-In the Bible, the end usually means not the finish, but the goal or the purpose, as in “the end justifies the means.” When people prattle on about seeing the Bible as predicting some cataclysmic end, they seem to disregard the biblical tension between a conclusion and the new beginning or restoration that almost always accompanies destructive images. May I suggest looking at the end time restoration images and then asking how the new creation would fit with god’s goal/purpose for our world?
Thursday-I don’t remember many times when we have had a full week after Thanksgiving. So, the extra time feels to me an unexpected gift. How to deal with the gift of extra time: in planning and preparation to lessen the feel of hectic wandering , or to let it pass by unnoticed and disregarded? May we allow the spirit of gratitude to pervade this extra week?
Friday-Back in Indiana we had a joint thanksgiving service for our two churches, and we invited the community as well. Some of the hardest working people scheduled time to take a 30 minute break from their duties and have worship together. Those same people put some real thought into the grace before meals as well. Usually, I would volunteer in the hospital chaplaincy, as our girls and I had our big celebration before or after the big day.So, my social work had an ulterior motive, of not facing solitude on a holiday.
Saturday-I heard a number of suggestions this year to use time during the holidays to gather family stories, medical histories, and time to chat about important decisions for the future, such as power of attorney. I applaud the idea fully. I would like to suggest that the gathering of family stories include some memories of religious faith, ritual, and questions over time. When we talk of serious matters, they may well be in a crisis, so this is a time to let a story unwind.
Monday-This week closes the church year. So, it discloses our arbitrary divisions of time. It is a bold act of the church to refuse to fit its calendar with the secular calendar.When the two conflict, the church seems to lose. It comes to a liturgical conflict soon, when we decide when to start Christmas songs in church when the radio has been playing them since before Thanksgiving.
Tuesday-I saw the wonderful new film Lincoln recently in Edwardsville.I wrote a review for my online column for the Telegraph and on my blog. I don't know if I have ever seen a movie that so well matches nobility with political machinations, private and public grief, and the value and impact of storytelling by Lincoln as much as this film.It’s good that it came out in November for the is one of our secular national saints, and in thanksgiving that such a miraculous man rose to power when he did.
Wednesday-In the Bible, the end usually means not the finish, but the goal or the purpose, as in “the end justifies the means.” When people prattle on about seeing the Bible as predicting some cataclysmic end, they seem to disregard the biblical tension between a conclusion and the new beginning or restoration that almost always accompanies destructive images. May I suggest looking at the end time restoration images and then asking how the new creation would fit with god’s goal/purpose for our world?
Thursday-I don’t remember many times when we have had a full week after Thanksgiving. So, the extra time feels to me an unexpected gift. How to deal with the gift of extra time: in planning and preparation to lessen the feel of hectic wandering , or to let it pass by unnoticed and disregarded? May we allow the spirit of gratitude to pervade this extra week?
Friday-Back in Indiana we had a joint thanksgiving service for our two churches, and we invited the community as well. Some of the hardest working people scheduled time to take a 30 minute break from their duties and have worship together. Those same people put some real thought into the grace before meals as well. Usually, I would volunteer in the hospital chaplaincy, as our girls and I had our big celebration before or after the big day.So, my social work had an ulterior motive, of not facing solitude on a holiday.
Saturday-I heard a number of suggestions this year to use time during the holidays to gather family stories, medical histories, and time to chat about important decisions for the future, such as power of attorney. I applaud the idea fully. I would like to suggest that the gathering of family stories include some memories of religious faith, ritual, and questions over time. When we talk of serious matters, they may well be in a crisis, so this is a time to let a story unwind.
Thoughts on new movie, Lincoln:Friday after Thanksgiving column for Telegraph
I was going to write a screed against Black Friday and the idol of consumerism. I saw Lincoln and that all changed. I am grateful on this thanksgiving weekend that I was able to see it. As a minister, I hear people say all of the time that they gave up on movies due to their depiction of all forms of vulgarity. Yes, a few vulgar words are spoken in the picture, but Hollywood deserves that its best be viewed and not only dismissed. If you have any interest in history at all, please go see this wonderful movie. It may be wise to familiarize yourself with his White House advisors, so you can pick up on some nuance of their words and even their appearance..I usually find political films to be a bit off kilter, but this one takes seriously the moral wieght of the amendment and the necessity of the political machinations of acquiring and counting votes.
The movie deals with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in the last months of his term and his life. for our alton readers, i remind us that our own Lyman Trumbull wrote the draft of the Thirteenth Amendment, that abolished slavery in our country.While Trumbull is ignored, the revelation is Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania. The Southern revision of history has dominated our textbooks, so he has been painted as a villain, as in Birth of a Nation.Here he is the aging, vigorous leader of the Radical Republican wing of Lincoln’s party.Throughout, we get a sense of the tightrope Lincoln walked over the Constitution, the definition of the war, public opinion, and the divisions between and within the parties in Congress.
I have read a bit of Lincoln biography, but am no Lincoln scholar. Still, Daniel Day Lewis’s performance is as if Abraham Lincoln rises from the printed page and appears before our eyes. Appreciate so many of his decisions as an actor, how to pitch his voice, how to walk and move as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders, the use of the Irish gift of storytelling. In his portrayal and the great script, Lincoln uses stories for two reasons:to make a point as in a parable, or to relieve the gloom that threatened his very life.
Few portrayals of Lincoln, with the except of the fine made for TV production of years ago with Sam Waterston, do such a good job weaving the personal and public grief of the White House. The Lincolns lost a child i in 1850 and another favored child in the white House in 1862. Mary Todd Lincoln was undone in her grief, but Lincoln knew he had to carry on for the sake of their younger son and for that of the country. So the astounding casualty reports always brought a freshened pang of grief in his own soul too.
The care in the production is astonishing. the sound of church bells is recorded from churches standing in Washington at that time. The sound of a carriage door is taped from a Lincoln carriage in a museum.the light is dim in the offices.
This is the 50th anniversary of the movie set in the segregated South, To Kill a Mockingbird. In an attempt to portray nobility in a human being, Lincoln picks up some of the same feelings.In our section of the theater at least, people wept at the close of the movie and many applauded. President Wilson called movies history written with lightning. Surely, this movie will send people off to learn more about one of our great national figures whose life has merged into myth. This movie does our central national figure proud.
The movie deals with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in the last months of his term and his life. for our alton readers, i remind us that our own Lyman Trumbull wrote the draft of the Thirteenth Amendment, that abolished slavery in our country.While Trumbull is ignored, the revelation is Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania. The Southern revision of history has dominated our textbooks, so he has been painted as a villain, as in Birth of a Nation.Here he is the aging, vigorous leader of the Radical Republican wing of Lincoln’s party.Throughout, we get a sense of the tightrope Lincoln walked over the Constitution, the definition of the war, public opinion, and the divisions between and within the parties in Congress.
I have read a bit of Lincoln biography, but am no Lincoln scholar. Still, Daniel Day Lewis’s performance is as if Abraham Lincoln rises from the printed page and appears before our eyes. Appreciate so many of his decisions as an actor, how to pitch his voice, how to walk and move as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders, the use of the Irish gift of storytelling. In his portrayal and the great script, Lincoln uses stories for two reasons:to make a point as in a parable, or to relieve the gloom that threatened his very life.
Few portrayals of Lincoln, with the except of the fine made for TV production of years ago with Sam Waterston, do such a good job weaving the personal and public grief of the White House. The Lincolns lost a child i in 1850 and another favored child in the white House in 1862. Mary Todd Lincoln was undone in her grief, but Lincoln knew he had to carry on for the sake of their younger son and for that of the country. So the astounding casualty reports always brought a freshened pang of grief in his own soul too.
The care in the production is astonishing. the sound of church bells is recorded from churches standing in Washington at that time. The sound of a carriage door is taped from a Lincoln carriage in a museum.the light is dim in the offices.
This is the 50th anniversary of the movie set in the segregated South, To Kill a Mockingbird. In an attempt to portray nobility in a human being, Lincoln picks up some of the same feelings.In our section of the theater at least, people wept at the close of the movie and many applauded. President Wilson called movies history written with lightning. Surely, this movie will send people off to learn more about one of our great national figures whose life has merged into myth. This movie does our central national figure proud.
Monday, November 19, 2012
OT Notes for Christ the King
1) I am reading a new book, Babylon, on the fertile crescent area, and the homage paid to kings over the years certainly has resonance here.
2) This is a good time to reflect on church and state, or the benefits of good government, spiritual v. temporal leadership, pastoral leadership. Put differently, how should the reign of Christ be reflected in church and state? What attributes of kingship would you prize for today? What would be some good alternatives to the word, king for democratic Americans in 2012?
3) I haven't encounter the Strong One of Israel that often, but I like it. How doe sit affect your reading of Christ? Be careful not to equate strength with only physical/military prowess.
4) Rock bespeaks strength but also birth as in Dt. 32:18.
5) Justice is linked to the reverence of God. Justice is a fundamental attribute for a ruler in the OT. It could be a good time to reflect on justice in 2012.
6) v. 5 for freedom to reign, does it not need security ?
7) same verse- order is another basic sense for the OT ag/chaos. Lately chaos is being praised for its creative energies, but in your experience, does it not usually end up in a terrible waste of energy?
8) verses 6 and seven are certainly not going to be in the soft wisdom approach to government, are they? Still going back to Richard Neustadt and the powers of persuasion in presidential leadership, when is command authority and coercion an admission of weakness? Doesn't it hide a basic fragility?
Ps.132
1) Back when I was in seminary in the late eighties, i recall that Brueggemann had a distaste for royal psalms as being inherently static in the condition of elites v. the powerless, but at this point, am too lazy to check if that remained in his work.
2) This psalm is certainly a powerful liturgical piece. it may have re-enacted an ark ceremony. At any rate, it does make explicit links of church and state, of ark and Zion royal theology, of palace and temple.
3) I note that the priest should be clothed with righteousness(9) and then salvation (16)-that could be explored as a theme for this day as well.
4) Here is a great inter-textual piece that makes clear reference to 2 Sam. 7 in 11-18 of the psalm.
5) look at the blessings at the end, presence, prosperity, poor get help.
6) It has a potent messianic blessing at the end.
2) This is a good time to reflect on church and state, or the benefits of good government, spiritual v. temporal leadership, pastoral leadership. Put differently, how should the reign of Christ be reflected in church and state? What attributes of kingship would you prize for today? What would be some good alternatives to the word, king for democratic Americans in 2012?
3) I haven't encounter the Strong One of Israel that often, but I like it. How doe sit affect your reading of Christ? Be careful not to equate strength with only physical/military prowess.
4) Rock bespeaks strength but also birth as in Dt. 32:18.
5) Justice is linked to the reverence of God. Justice is a fundamental attribute for a ruler in the OT. It could be a good time to reflect on justice in 2012.
6) v. 5 for freedom to reign, does it not need security ?
7) same verse- order is another basic sense for the OT ag/chaos. Lately chaos is being praised for its creative energies, but in your experience, does it not usually end up in a terrible waste of energy?
8) verses 6 and seven are certainly not going to be in the soft wisdom approach to government, are they? Still going back to Richard Neustadt and the powers of persuasion in presidential leadership, when is command authority and coercion an admission of weakness? Doesn't it hide a basic fragility?
Ps.132
1) Back when I was in seminary in the late eighties, i recall that Brueggemann had a distaste for royal psalms as being inherently static in the condition of elites v. the powerless, but at this point, am too lazy to check if that remained in his work.
2) This psalm is certainly a powerful liturgical piece. it may have re-enacted an ark ceremony. At any rate, it does make explicit links of church and state, of ark and Zion royal theology, of palace and temple.
3) I note that the priest should be clothed with righteousness(9) and then salvation (16)-that could be explored as a theme for this day as well.
4) Here is a great inter-textual piece that makes clear reference to 2 Sam. 7 in 11-18 of the psalm.
5) look at the blessings at the end, presence, prosperity, poor get help.
6) It has a potent messianic blessing at the end.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Week of Nov. 18 devotions
Sunday-Hannah’s song in I Sam. 2:1-10 replaces a reading from the psalms today.Greg is being gracious enough for us to sing a new hymn lyric for it today. I love how it seems to be a template for Mary’s song in Luke 1. They both emphasize reversals and see the surprising new life within them as signs of a new day for everybody, not themselves alone. What in your life do you think is representative of others?
Monday-I did a speech on Elijah Lovejoy on the 175th anniversary of his martyrdom. In preparing it, i was struck by his discovering a deep courage. he was young and newly married, but he persisted knowing that mob violence against him was a real threat. He found that reliance on his way conforming with God helped to dispel his fear. In a letter to his mother, he recalled Ps. 27. Without his religious endurance, I do not know if he would have found the courage ot face a mob.
Tuesday-I’m reading a book on Babylon, and I saw a picture of perhaps the world’s oldest toy, an animal that could be dragged behind by a child. I found it strangely moving. While much has changed, some things, like childhood play remain curiously the same. I wonder what sort of thoughts entered the mind of that child in a world that predates most of our biblical material? What are some things you miss of childhood? What maintains the childlike in you?
Wednesday-We have been reading Galatians lately in Bible Study.This week, we may get to the end of chapter 3, where Paul gives a moving baptismal declaration of our common unity and cause in Christ. We so emphasize our differences, and Paul asks us to seek our commonality in christ, where our faith holds us together.What are the elements that hold a congregation together. What holds your individual spiritual life together?
Thanksgiving Day was always a favorite for me. I loved that all the churches got together the night before for a big hymn sing. I loved how warm the house was from all of the baking and cooking. I loved the historical linkage all the way back to the Pilgrims. Most of all, I loved and love the sheer thought behind the holiday:thanksgiving.This day of all days please consider some special prayers of thanksgiving. think up some areas of thanksgiving and then list out some specific ones to keep your prayer grounded in this good earth as it goes ot the divine realm.
Friday-I noticed that some of the shopping frenzy is being moved back to yesterday evening. I don’t know what that will do to Black Friday for accounting, but it may change the black moods of early risers, fortified with coffee, greed, and lust for bargains.It is part of the riutal of a society powered by consumer demand. Do you feel the same urge toward what God offers us?
Saturday-I am listening to Mary Chapin Carpenter’s latest album again lately.In New Year’s Eve, she writes of the deep connection she had with a longtime friend as they were chatting away the hours as a meeting place was preparing for the holiday rush. Connections are everywhere in our lives, but it does seem to me that intimate, deep, soul connections are quite rare. With whom have you a special connection? When do you sense a special connection with our God?
Monday-I did a speech on Elijah Lovejoy on the 175th anniversary of his martyrdom. In preparing it, i was struck by his discovering a deep courage. he was young and newly married, but he persisted knowing that mob violence against him was a real threat. He found that reliance on his way conforming with God helped to dispel his fear. In a letter to his mother, he recalled Ps. 27. Without his religious endurance, I do not know if he would have found the courage ot face a mob.
Tuesday-I’m reading a book on Babylon, and I saw a picture of perhaps the world’s oldest toy, an animal that could be dragged behind by a child. I found it strangely moving. While much has changed, some things, like childhood play remain curiously the same. I wonder what sort of thoughts entered the mind of that child in a world that predates most of our biblical material? What are some things you miss of childhood? What maintains the childlike in you?
Wednesday-We have been reading Galatians lately in Bible Study.This week, we may get to the end of chapter 3, where Paul gives a moving baptismal declaration of our common unity and cause in Christ. We so emphasize our differences, and Paul asks us to seek our commonality in christ, where our faith holds us together.What are the elements that hold a congregation together. What holds your individual spiritual life together?
Thanksgiving Day was always a favorite for me. I loved that all the churches got together the night before for a big hymn sing. I loved how warm the house was from all of the baking and cooking. I loved the historical linkage all the way back to the Pilgrims. Most of all, I loved and love the sheer thought behind the holiday:thanksgiving.This day of all days please consider some special prayers of thanksgiving. think up some areas of thanksgiving and then list out some specific ones to keep your prayer grounded in this good earth as it goes ot the divine realm.
Friday-I noticed that some of the shopping frenzy is being moved back to yesterday evening. I don’t know what that will do to Black Friday for accounting, but it may change the black moods of early risers, fortified with coffee, greed, and lust for bargains.It is part of the riutal of a society powered by consumer demand. Do you feel the same urge toward what God offers us?
Saturday-I am listening to Mary Chapin Carpenter’s latest album again lately.In New Year’s Eve, she writes of the deep connection she had with a longtime friend as they were chatting away the hours as a meeting place was preparing for the holiday rush. Connections are everywhere in our lives, but it does seem to me that intimate, deep, soul connections are quite rare. With whom have you a special connection? When do you sense a special connection with our God?
thanksgiving column
I’ve noticed a number of people have been using an invitation on Facebook to write down an element of thanksgiving this month. That strikes me as a worthy spiritual exercise.(I wonder what it says about me that I so consistently mistype spiritual). I do not want to come off as one of those gratitude scolds who try to make us feel guilty that we are not exuberant enough in our capacity and willingness to give thanks. I do hope that the upcoming holiday is allowed some room to breathe a bit.
Thanksgiving has long been my favorite holiday. i was pretty young when I realized that it was different than most of the holidays. It did not have the commercial appeal of the other holidays. I loved how our village’s churches got together and had our only ecumenical service for Thanksgiving. I liked getting things at the store for last minute preparations that weren’t on the grocery list. I loved how warm the house was with all of the baking and cooking. My mother shared her hypothesis that her barely thawed turkey was slow in its roasting because all of the ovens that were on in the neighborhood were causing a brownout.
I have grown so tired of vulgar end times predictions that scan the world for bad news in hopes that Christ will return soon, according to the recipe they allegedly have discovered in Scripture. It blinds us to the remarkable good we now see. I want to prepare a list of some public events for which I am grateful. In the year I was born, Brown v. Bd was decided and the Salk vaccine was being tested and found effective. I have lived to see a biracial president elected and terrible wars ended, Osama Bin Laden killed, and the Berlin Wall falling without a shot being fired. I have lived to see MRI available to scan a body without exploratory surgery. In my lifetime we moved from the image of Donna Reed to women in boardrooms and now 20 female Senators. Cataract surgery is outpatient but when I was a child it was a six week recovery. A computer opens a world with just a few clicks.remember when we had to retype an entire page for one error?
In the midst of these marvels, we live more in a culture of complaint than open-eyed wonder.We adjust quickly to the miraculous, it seems.We drum our fingers in anxious boredom waiting for a PDF to load or the ATM to spit out bills.I often resort to a bit of wisdom:”we rarely solve problems in this life, but we can hope to create a better set of problems.” I would like to test a guess that complaint as a default standard of approaching the world does inhibit thanksgiving and gratitude.
I would ask our readers to consider working out a special prayer around the table this year. In so doing, Take a moment to admire the effort and artistry behind a meal and the relative ease we procure all of that bounty. Please consider with some care some of the people and things for which you are grateful, maybe especially the those that have entered your life without a lot of planning and effort, but as sheer gift. A good prayer can be composed, or at least its outline considered, and does not have to be the first thing that comes from brain to mouth. Rummage around in memory and select places where those who are not around the table with us have brought light and joy into your life. Look around your table and mention, acknowledge the attributes in each one that you most admire.
Thanksgiving has long been my favorite holiday. i was pretty young when I realized that it was different than most of the holidays. It did not have the commercial appeal of the other holidays. I loved how our village’s churches got together and had our only ecumenical service for Thanksgiving. I liked getting things at the store for last minute preparations that weren’t on the grocery list. I loved how warm the house was with all of the baking and cooking. My mother shared her hypothesis that her barely thawed turkey was slow in its roasting because all of the ovens that were on in the neighborhood were causing a brownout.
I have grown so tired of vulgar end times predictions that scan the world for bad news in hopes that Christ will return soon, according to the recipe they allegedly have discovered in Scripture. It blinds us to the remarkable good we now see. I want to prepare a list of some public events for which I am grateful. In the year I was born, Brown v. Bd was decided and the Salk vaccine was being tested and found effective. I have lived to see a biracial president elected and terrible wars ended, Osama Bin Laden killed, and the Berlin Wall falling without a shot being fired. I have lived to see MRI available to scan a body without exploratory surgery. In my lifetime we moved from the image of Donna Reed to women in boardrooms and now 20 female Senators. Cataract surgery is outpatient but when I was a child it was a six week recovery. A computer opens a world with just a few clicks.remember when we had to retype an entire page for one error?
In the midst of these marvels, we live more in a culture of complaint than open-eyed wonder.We adjust quickly to the miraculous, it seems.We drum our fingers in anxious boredom waiting for a PDF to load or the ATM to spit out bills.I often resort to a bit of wisdom:”we rarely solve problems in this life, but we can hope to create a better set of problems.” I would like to test a guess that complaint as a default standard of approaching the world does inhibit thanksgiving and gratitude.
I would ask our readers to consider working out a special prayer around the table this year. In so doing, Take a moment to admire the effort and artistry behind a meal and the relative ease we procure all of that bounty. Please consider with some care some of the people and things for which you are grateful, maybe especially the those that have entered your life without a lot of planning and effort, but as sheer gift. A good prayer can be composed, or at least its outline considered, and does not have to be the first thing that comes from brain to mouth. Rummage around in memory and select places where those who are not around the table with us have brought light and joy into your life. Look around your table and mention, acknowledge the attributes in each one that you most admire.
Sermon Notes Hannah I Samuel 1, 2
November 18 I Samuel, 1, 2
Hannah is the female form of John, so it means Grace or Precious. She does not feel as if she is living out the meaning of her name. She feels constantly put down and judged. She can do nothing to change her status.Inside, she feels like Job or Naomi.
Hannah lived in a biblical time of polygamy for males. Marriage is difficult enough, and I suppose that issues only multiply in such an arrangement. Sure enough, competition exists between her and another wife, Peninnah. Males do not seem to have evolved much since Biblical times, as their husband, Elkanah, seems as clueless as any 21st century husband. I give you the special treats at festival, don’t you know how much I love you? Am I not worth more to you than oodles of children? How can you be sad, after all, she is married to him.He does notice her sadness, so he may well be more advanced than many 21st Century males, but like a good male, tries to argue out of her feelings, and he uses his love as the point of comparison.
Hannah prays a desperate prayer. She makes a terrible vow to cement her prayer.So fervent is her prayer that the priest Eli figures that she has been hitting the bottle. Again, I should ppoint out that Eli is a male priest, unable to determine drinking from sincere prayer. Maybe he hadn’t seen enough of sincere prayer to judge properly.Hannah stands for all of us who pray and pray and wait for an answer. (Yeah, yeah, the answer may be no, but that snarky comment is beneath religious contempt) She needs help; she needs the circumstances of her life to change. How quick we are to judge Hannah’s plight, instead of accepting her pain. (In that sense we are all Elkanah and Eli).We may not be in her situation, but I would bet most of us have uttered a scared, desperate pleading when it seems hope is lost, that no way out is even a glimmer on the horizon.When we are faced with such a deep prayer, maybe the best we can do is promise to offer a sincere prayer for them as well.
Infertility was clearly an issue in ancient Israel, and it seems to be an issue in our time. Of course, it doesn't seem to be for folks who should not be considering bringing children into the world, but fertility clinics now dot our country. In ancient times, the woman was called barren, and now we blame women for waiting too long to have children. Notice who gets left out of the equation in each instance.Of course, we were treated to the scientific genius of Todd Aiken and pregnancy and the vulgar theological musing of Senate candidate Murdock in Indiana on the same issue. Hannah is strict about the answer to her prayer and offers her first born son to the work of god in the temple shrine to work with Eli, of all people. She would see him once a year and brought a new robe. It is a moving and heartbreaking gesture. It brings to mind people being hid during the Holocaust who were hidden away and could only see their son being taken for a walk at a certain time every day.
Christmas comes in a month or so. So much of Mary’s great prayer in Luke, a prayer the choir sang on All Saints Day,a prayer about a surprise birth, seems modelled on Hannah’s prayer.Both prayers are about reversal of fortune, in this life, in this society. The prayer takes an individual lament and elevates the plight to the public stage. We’ve lost the notion of the everyman or woman, except maybe in some actors such as Tom Hanks.they see themselves as representative figures. The personal prayer is public, a microcosm of a world in prayer.
Hannah is the female form of John, so it means Grace or Precious. She does not feel as if she is living out the meaning of her name. She feels constantly put down and judged. She can do nothing to change her status.Inside, she feels like Job or Naomi.
Hannah lived in a biblical time of polygamy for males. Marriage is difficult enough, and I suppose that issues only multiply in such an arrangement. Sure enough, competition exists between her and another wife, Peninnah. Males do not seem to have evolved much since Biblical times, as their husband, Elkanah, seems as clueless as any 21st century husband. I give you the special treats at festival, don’t you know how much I love you? Am I not worth more to you than oodles of children? How can you be sad, after all, she is married to him.He does notice her sadness, so he may well be more advanced than many 21st Century males, but like a good male, tries to argue out of her feelings, and he uses his love as the point of comparison.
Hannah prays a desperate prayer. She makes a terrible vow to cement her prayer.So fervent is her prayer that the priest Eli figures that she has been hitting the bottle. Again, I should ppoint out that Eli is a male priest, unable to determine drinking from sincere prayer. Maybe he hadn’t seen enough of sincere prayer to judge properly.Hannah stands for all of us who pray and pray and wait for an answer. (Yeah, yeah, the answer may be no, but that snarky comment is beneath religious contempt) She needs help; she needs the circumstances of her life to change. How quick we are to judge Hannah’s plight, instead of accepting her pain. (In that sense we are all Elkanah and Eli).We may not be in her situation, but I would bet most of us have uttered a scared, desperate pleading when it seems hope is lost, that no way out is even a glimmer on the horizon.When we are faced with such a deep prayer, maybe the best we can do is promise to offer a sincere prayer for them as well.
Infertility was clearly an issue in ancient Israel, and it seems to be an issue in our time. Of course, it doesn't seem to be for folks who should not be considering bringing children into the world, but fertility clinics now dot our country. In ancient times, the woman was called barren, and now we blame women for waiting too long to have children. Notice who gets left out of the equation in each instance.Of course, we were treated to the scientific genius of Todd Aiken and pregnancy and the vulgar theological musing of Senate candidate Murdock in Indiana on the same issue. Hannah is strict about the answer to her prayer and offers her first born son to the work of god in the temple shrine to work with Eli, of all people. She would see him once a year and brought a new robe. It is a moving and heartbreaking gesture. It brings to mind people being hid during the Holocaust who were hidden away and could only see their son being taken for a walk at a certain time every day.
Christmas comes in a month or so. So much of Mary’s great prayer in Luke, a prayer the choir sang on All Saints Day,a prayer about a surprise birth, seems modelled on Hannah’s prayer.Both prayers are about reversal of fortune, in this life, in this society. The prayer takes an individual lament and elevates the plight to the public stage. We’ve lost the notion of the everyman or woman, except maybe in some actors such as Tom Hanks.they see themselves as representative figures. The personal prayer is public, a microcosm of a world in prayer.
Monday, November 12, 2012
OT Notes I Samuel 1,2
1) We are in the midst of another account of infertility, so this couldbe a good gateway for a study, as well as a sermon topic.
2) We are in the midst of a family system. It reminds me of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, more than Jacob's family. Peninnah (jewel) torments Hannah (Grace) but she is still the favored wife. I feel for Elkanah (God creates/possesses) in this emotional stew. Notice how the scene is replayed year after year.
4) It would be a good point who is less emotionally aware, Elkanah or Eli.
5)v.16 or 17 alone would be a good sermon topic.
6)the meaning of the name given is off a bit. that would be closer to God hearing, or God's name, or even one of/from god).the description sounds closer to Saul.
2:1-10
1) this great prayer loolks like a template fo rMary's song in Luke 1.
2) It is remarkable that the song seems to see her as a representative for a nation.
3)Rock could be strength of course, but it is connected with birth in Dt.32:18.
4) Her prayer certainly sees a god with an activ ehand in human destiny, but do not let that darken its main point of a God who reverses fortunes.
5) The notions in vv 9-10 have some obvious places where they do seem to be apparent and whre they do not. I doubt seriously she prayed liek this in chapter one when so downcast in shiloh.
6) does v. 6 have a hint of resurrection ot you?
2) We are in the midst of a family system. It reminds me of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, more than Jacob's family. Peninnah (jewel) torments Hannah (Grace) but she is still the favored wife. I feel for Elkanah (God creates/possesses) in this emotional stew. Notice how the scene is replayed year after year.
4) It would be a good point who is less emotionally aware, Elkanah or Eli.
5)v.16 or 17 alone would be a good sermon topic.
6)the meaning of the name given is off a bit. that would be closer to God hearing, or God's name, or even one of/from god).the description sounds closer to Saul.
2:1-10
1) this great prayer loolks like a template fo rMary's song in Luke 1.
2) It is remarkable that the song seems to see her as a representative for a nation.
3)Rock could be strength of course, but it is connected with birth in Dt.32:18.
4) Her prayer certainly sees a god with an activ ehand in human destiny, but do not let that darken its main point of a God who reverses fortunes.
5) The notions in vv 9-10 have some obvious places where they do seem to be apparent and whre they do not. I doubt seriously she prayed liek this in chapter one when so downcast in shiloh.
6) does v. 6 have a hint of resurrection ot you?
Sermon Notes Ruth 3, 4, Mk. 12:38-44 Nov. 11
November 11, Ruth 3, 4 Mk. 12:38-44
Our readings touch on being widowed. One sign of breaking out of a depression is the capacity to plan for the future.Naomi and Ruth hatch a dangerous plan. it is mostly dangerous because it trusts a male with matters of sexual seduction. In Rabbit is Rich, John Updike sets a scene with a couple surrounded by gold coins. Here Ruth who has been gathering the tailing of the grain on the ground is in a storage facility of grain at the barley harvest.
Boaz has the great male name, pillar of strength. It will become the name of one of the pillars of the temple. That means that his descendant will build it.He has grown older, and we do not know how old, but when he thanks her for ignoring the younger men, I would guess he has moved into that terrible age range where he has become invisible to the interests of younger women.She is risking that Boaz will do the right thing and not use Ruth as a mere foreign object to release his desires.
Even when Boaz offers to marry her, obstacles appear to make it a binding marriage. Boaz follows the system and gets the go-ahead to marry Ruth. Remember she is from Moab. After the exile, Israel will desperately try to protects its religion and culture, even to the point of breaking up mixed marriages. Phyllis Trible speaks of the bible having love’s lyrics redeemed, and that certainly applies to the story of Ruth. The last person most could imagine is a model of loyalty, the model of trying something daring, and is the ancestor of the great king David.
Ruth and Naomi get the salvation of a fresh start. The child is a sign of the fresh start,as Ruth doesn’t have a child mentioned before.Naomi even becomes young again. An empty belly led Naomi and family into Moab. Then she has to return, empty of pockets and empty-hearted. Economic lack marks our other readings as well. The God whom Naomi blames for her plight si the same God who allows her to be young again. Her empty heart can be filled again. She will need no more worry about an empty belly. In her old age she has found abundance. ruth has found a family in a strange land, no more a stranger but a member of it..
Since Ruth has a descendant named King David, then she has a later descendant named Jesus.Since Joseph disappears from the narrative of Jesus, let’s assume that Mary was widowed. Jesus notices a poor widow with particular interest as he looks at the offering from a different perspective. the widow gives all she has left as a sign of her spiritual abundance. Even though others give much more, it does not have nearly the spiritual impact of the widow’s decision.While others would sneer at her tiny offering,Jesus sees it in the immensity of her meager possessions.I wish Jesus would have said more about a system that left a widow in such dire straits, but maybe Jesus and Mark both figure that we readers are sharp enough to question that ourselves.
I was raised by a widow, and she poured a lot of herself into that identity and spent much of her life mourning her loss. At the same time, we do not deal with the widowed very well. We quickly tired of their struggles, and we are clumsy in re-integrating them into social settings.the story of Naomi and Ruth is one where God is with the widowed as well as the married, the newborn, the middle aged, and the elderly.God aims always at restoration, toward a happy ending.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Devotions Week of Nov. 11
Sunday Nov. 11-Ps 127-speaks a lot about work in vain, as if it would be meaningless, transitory, useless, even. I love the poetic line of “eating the bread of anxious toil” as that speak sot so many of us who act as if we can live on anxiety instead of security and hope.In down times, we may well wonder what is the us eof it all. In better times, we are reminded that the ocean consists of drop after drop, but each drop also contains an ocean (drawn and changed from Cloud Atlas).
Monday-Veterans Day does not sadden me as much as Memorial Day, but I do indeed mark it.I like to honor those who served our country, especially those older survivors of WWII and Korea, as they are more than survivors, they built this country post-war. I continue to struggle with the Christian call to being pacifist with the reality of evil and the necessity for a nation to fight, including for pacifists. I pray that one day we will have few veterans of conflicts.
Tuesday-I find bureaucracy frustrating,especially red tape. It’s not that I think I should be immune from rules and regulations,but the rules and regulations seem to get in the way of a desire we may well share. A friend is going through a tough time with fear that a small mistake on her forms for church positions could inhibit the work of the Spirit.At the same time, can mere red tape inhibit the work of the living God?
Wednesday-Where does a spirit of restlessness come from? It may be a signal that something is amiss in life. It could be as simple as a plan being disrupted, but a bothersome restlessness seems to me a form of spiritual anxiety. It may well be a sign that I have not spent enough quality time with God in prayer or with the bible, or I have let my spiritual practices fall into some disrepair.In such times, we need to be in communion wiht the God of peace, of shalom, who can tell us, “peace, be still (and know that I am God).
Thursday-Usually when I mention patience, I usually make a distinction, biblically, between two words, endurance and long suffering. Today, I want to consider it the way we use the word:to be able to wait placidly, without complaint, without trying to hurry things along.When things go wrong, to be able to cope without exploding seems an element of it as well. It seems the necessary complement to frustration.
Friday-We have a wedding rehearsal here. I find them tedious, as I always say women already know what they want to do and men have to b e reminded the next day.Still, it is an expected ritual in a time when we try to reinvent the wheel and avoid ritual as passe.I am glad that we surround a wedding with ritual, and that is is one thing where we invest the ties of family and community through the ages.
Saturday-Discernment is an attempt to integrate Christian thoughts and feelings with decision-making. One way is to be alert to our feeling state as we mull and pray over a decision. If something keeps gnawing at you, that may be a signal to rethink one’s position.While some decisions were made at random in Scripture, we are also told to test the spirits (I John) and Acts 15 demonstrates a careful deliberative process.
Post election thoughts and a prayer
Before I was called to the pastorate, I taught American government. I rarely read professional political science any more, but I still mix a look at our politics with some degree of objectivity and having policy views at the same time. On that great productivity vacuum, Facebook, I’ve noticed four responses: gushing winners, conciliatory winners, depressed, confused losers, and angry, vicious losers. I don’t know if the edges are even capable of hearing much, so I direct these random thoughts to the middle two groupings.
I found this a dispiriting campaign as it was a marketing drive. It often disregarded the truth, time and again. Not only that, data was not used to explain an argument, a narrative, but merely to bolster a position without regard to alternatives. Instead of marketing policies, we marketed candidate image.Marketing campaigns treat voters with contempt. They assume voters are incapable of making rational judgments, so we are fed pablum of images and slogans. The highlight of the campaign for me was President Clinton’s careful marshaling of facts to make a case for the president. I do not mean specific policies, but he respected hsi audience enough to explain things to us.
Elections are tricky to campaign as they seem to require that we make retrospective evaluations of results, and also compare competing views of the future. the Romney campaign was strong on evaluation of the economic slump, but very weak on prescriptions for the future, one that was shared by the incumbent.So we were faced with competing aims of blaming but no compelling vision of the way ahead, other than “Forward.” One of the reasons we breathed a collective sigh of relief with the commercials over is that we realized that we were being pandered to, and every voiceover from political action committees reminded us of it.I fear that we are gravitating to media sources that merely confirm our prejudices instead of seeking to get a range of views and opinions.
I may be wrong, but I still see American politics as a battle over a vast middle. Maybe I am wrong, and we have grown more polarized into two competing camps, with two competing centers of gravity. I have real concerns about the radicalization of the Republican party in my lifetime. I lived in Indiana for 20 years. Compare Senator Lugar to the candidate Richard Mourdock. Compare John Danforth to Todd Aiken in Missouri.Conservative meant the opposite of flying off the handle, but far too often it can be equated with just that.
Maybe this election will make us more humble about claiming God’s will for policy or outcome. How many of us hold to the vulgar Calvinism that God directs minutely actions.Maybe the Catholic bishops will learn that calls for voting a certain way will often fall on deaf ears. Maybe we can come to the point where we do not see God as one of the past and a God is is drawing us all into a new future, a God who responds to human life without controlling God’s free creatures. Religious people throw the word sin out far too liberally for their opponents and far too rarely toward themselves. Perhaps we would do well to accept a chastened sense of our creaturehood, that discerning the hand of God is not automatic but takes real reflection and study over time.
I suppose I shall end with a prayer for us to find the spirit of conciliation, to discover the humility of the fallibility of the judgments of self and party and ideology, to truly seek the public interest, to seek common ground as well as dividing lines, that we can still our curses and notice our blessings, individually and together.
Monday, November 5, 2012
OT Notes Ruth 3,4
1) One could look at Ruth as a series of waystations on grief. By this time, hey have made a plan to live. Even with obstacles, the plan works, somewhat like a romance novel, and they live to see a better day.
2) The plan itself is quite bold and depends on the fidelity of Boaz about matters sexual. Can you imagine a bigger leap of faith in someone in that culture, or now for that matter? Further, the plan itself is a sign that they live not in the past but are trying to chart of future. They are not caught in denial but actively being agents of their lives.
3) Boaz will be the name of a pillar of the temple. It goes without saying how many men would love to be named a pillar of strength.It could be in strength is well and God would be the silent subject of the name.That applies to fertility as we know of no children for Ruth, but notice also that God is the one who permits conception here.
4) Another sermon angle is that Naomi becomes young again. She who lamented that the age of childbearing was gone is the nurse maid for her grandchild.
5) One could write a sermon of the background of the great. Ruth is the great grandmother of the great king David. Matthew makes sure that she is mentioned in the linage for Jesus.
6) Ruth stands in the great tradition of inner-Biblical argument. Its very presence stands against the decision of Ezra to push marriage only between the people of Judah after the return.One could perhaps consider a sermon on inter-marriage. Then again are not all marriages the joining of different styles and attitudes of 2 families?
7) One could use this to speak on infertility , in vitro, and adoption perhaps.
8) Notice that the goel, the redeemer has a legal sense here of resotring a family to its tribal inheritance.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Devotions Week of Nov. 4
Sunday November 4-Ps 146 is a left wing psalm from our poor perspective as it emphasizes justice for the core of Hebrew ethics, the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the prisoner, the put down. At the same time, we are warned about putting trust in government above that of the god of heaven and earth. Still, no christian can ignore the clarion call to justice that permeates the Scriptures.
Monday- I had the new Christian Century on the train with me, so noted some things in it for devotions again.Recently the liturgical theologian and preacher thomas Long wrote of struggling with marital Christian hymns.If they are taken as walking hand in hand with the powers of war, I would agree. The Bible speaks of a hidden warfare of the spirit where arms are of no avail. that is why Eph. 6:10-20 uses military weapons but for non-violent purposes and means.
Tuesday-It is said that Gregory the Great, a charitable pope,came in a vision repeatedly to his successor to be more generous. when he came the fourth time, he hit him in the head with his staff, and his successor died soon after that final vision.It is a constant tension sin’t it. We want a church building to be a proper, respectful place to worship God, but so many needs cry out at the same time. I guess I would hope that a generous orthodoxy will be bound with “glad and generous hearts.” Opne-hearted prayer may well lead to open wallets and pocketbooks.
Wednesday-Christine Pohl wrote a provocative piece on kindness as a neglected virtue. She sees it as a simple antidote to the “meanness in the world,” the ruthless push for number one.Kindness can transform even the meanest situation or maybe even person, if only for a I hear echoes of the word, kin, in it, family, or kinder, for child.Kindness is helpful, respectful, and moderate in its scope. of grace.
Thursday-Stephanie Paulsell of harvard wrote a piece on St. Therese, the Little Flower. She once said that she was a little soul who could offer God little things, even the tough aggravating work of the laundry.Even when she suffered, even when she felt no joy, she sought to act in loving ways to provide some joy.Michael Plekon has written an interesting look at “saints in our time.” He notes that the writer Patricia Hempl speaks of a rediscovery of God after rejecting her birth faith: “we all form a holy procession from the first days down to the present.”.
Friday-Fleming Rutledge is one of the best preachers. ;let alone Episcopalian priests around. In a recent book, she explores Old Testament preaching. She tries to build a bridge to both conservatives and liberals through the OT.She uses the living god of the OT to remind us that God speaks still. She writes of the burning bush as “God’s fierce, dazzling holiness.”I have ot make a note to explore the theme of God and suffering through Is. 28.
Saturday- Heidi Neumark wrote a piece on justice as evoked by the story of the widow’s offering in Mk. 12:38-44. jesus notes with admiration that while she gave little in amount, in proportion to her means, it was all she had. She wonders why we continue to permit a system where some have so much and so many have too little.In other words, how do we countenance a system where the widow has but a few coins to slip into the offering?
Sermon Notes Ruth 1-Nov 4
Ruth 1-November 4, 2012
Naomi is the female version of Job. Death stalks her in this first chapter. (she lives out, in this chapter, the opposite of her name joy, pleasantness, beautiful,delightful) She flees with her family during a famine, so leaves the now ironically named Bethlehem, house of bread, and settles in Moab. That is usually enemy territory in Scripture, and it is the place of the burial of Moses.Will it be the burial place for her family and her faith? Her sons marry local girls. Their names predict trouble as they are named sickness/pestilence and tuberculosis.Then she is widowed. Then as Vice President Biden says, the crushing loss of having her two sons pre-decease her falls upon this widow.
We are given no reason for the calamity that touches Naomi’s family. In response, Naomi cannot accept her name any longer. Instead she says to call her Marah, bitterness, bitter tears. She lays the blame on her plight directly at the feet of God. She speaks of leaving full and returning empty. Wait, she left because of an empty belly. So, it seems she means her life was full, a husband and two sons. Even having enough to eat loses its importance in the face of such terrible loss.
Now what to do in those pre Social Security days? Time to trudge back home alone, and see what will be. My sense is that she is going back home to die. People in the age group of my mother would say that they did not want to be a burden to their children, or to anyone, really. Naomi knows her youth has long since fled; her future is clouded at best. She does move, however; she will not be a passive recipient of death closing in on her. She urges her daughters-in-law to try to find new lives. She places no burdens of the past on them, no demands for loyalty.Orpah (Back of the neck, but also perhaps fawn) makes the decision to stay home, and that is a good decision. Ruth ( friend, companion, but could be pasture or even longing) wants to stay, and Naomi resists, and Ruth responds with a fundamental declaration of loyalty to her.(I think of the Marc Cohn song, True Companion). I’ve wondered why the book is named for ruth and not Naomi. this pledge, this oath, this tontine shows why. Israel opens up to others in this book and finds humanity, grace, and nobility across a border. This people could find the assurance and confidence to name a book for a foreign, female protagonist in ancient times.
This story is also a version of the Good Samaritan. Then as now ethnic prejudice existed. Could anything good come out of Moab? Now this daughter of Moab, who apparently worshipped the gods of Moab, demonstrates a spectacular loyalty. She lives out the meaning of loving one’s neighbor as oneself that sums up biblical human relations. This daughter of supposed perdition supports herself and her mother-in-law. She is the human embodiment of the steadfast love of God.
On this first sunday after All Saints Day, we read of death and the decision toward life. n the end, this is a book about facing grief. Naomi faces it squarely: the angry and bitter feelings. she faces the so called secondary losses of the change in status that accompany loss. She somehow finds the strength to move into an unknowable future. she does not live in the past but draws the shards of a life together to face the future in spite of her loss.together, They choose to live.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Friday column for All Souls Day and purgatory
I write for November 2, All Souls Day. I was raised in a most traditional Roman Catholic background, and this day was stressed as part of a piece with All Saints Day. I am now a Protestant pastor, and one of the doctrines on which some of us disagree is the doctrine of purgatory as shared with some older Protestant traditions.It deals with a basic religious desire: we want to arrogate to ourselves the decision to who is in heaven or hell.
Basically, purgatory is seen as an intermediate, in-between state after death. The saints among us, in a blessed relationship with God and others, enter into heaven after death. Those on the opposite end of the spectrum are to suffer the pain of separation from God or perhaps annihilation or in some views, eternal punishment, in Hell. Given the long practice of prayers for the dead, purgatory seems to be an emerging notion. (One of the spiritual works of mercy we were taught was to pray for the living and dead). It also reflects a sense about holiness, that some of us, many of us, would require a continuing transformation of our orientation toward life and the good to be able to bear the sacred precincts. OK, if you insist, some of us would sully the purity of heaven: just go through jokes on St Peter in the receiving line of entering heaven.
The doctrine has been reformed within the Roman Catholic Church in Vatican II and following years. Purgatory did reflect a fundamental issue about heaven itself. If Hell was to be seen as punishment, after a sort of criminal trial of one’s life, then was heaven a sort of civil court award, for good behaviors? Heavenly crowns for good deeds started to morph into a pre-condition for entering Heaven. So, purgatory developed a sense of doing time as well as being purified before entering heaven. This seemed to be particularly aimed at a sense of satisfying the demands of justice ofr venial sins, the disorder and disordered acts that we all struggle with in our lives. Indulgences were for acts beyond their intrinsic goodness; they could be vehicles to use as credits for time served in purgatory for ourselves or others. They could help balance the ledger. (Again, this is the older model here described, and through a Protestant prism).When I was a boy in Catholic school, we learned math through indulgences. “If one obtained 3 days indulgence from purgatory when you entered church and dipped one’s hand in the holy water and made the sign of the cross, how many days would one enjoy away from purgatory if one went to church the whole week?” I am convinced that one of the reasons, Catholic school kids do well on standardized tests is their early exposure to big words. Not only were there discrete indulgences, one could obtain a plenary indulgence for a particularly meaningful good deed. I recall my confusion when I tried to consider how one could obtain more than one plenary indulgence. How could one add to a surfeit of grace?
In the end, most Christians struggle with the entire idea of salvation. We find it so hard to perceive that first it is about the whole of our existence, in this world and the world to come. Second, it is a gift of God’s grace for us. It is better perceived as healing sin sick souls than in a frame of reward and punishments. It is more than a ticket to heaven; it is entry into a new way of life in this world, a new way of seeing God, each other, and ourselves.It is a recognition that we are part of the same family; we are all in the same boat. God is constantly at work for that healing for all God’s children.
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