Devotional Pts. Week of 12/21

Sunday-Ps.89 is a royal hymn that Christians then link to Jesus, as a child of the great king David. Now look at the first two verses and apply them to the royal work of Jesus and its constant reversal of royal expectation. What do you make of a king in a cattle stall? Why did god choose to work through Behtlehem?

Monday-Centering Prayer means allowing a sacred word arise within you "that gathers up you all your desire," according the anonymous Cloud of Unknowing. Once a young Italian man told how the word adagio emerged as his centering word. How wonderful since adagio means "slowly" or "at ease." Later we listened to a CD of multiple versions of Samuel Barber's "Adagio."

Tuesday-One day, according to legend, a neighbor observed Michelangelo rolling a jagged boulder up the street and onto his front step. When the sculptor took out his hammer and chisel and began to strike the boulder, the neighbor was overcome by curiosity. He crossed the street and asked, "What are you doing hammering on that boulder?" Michelangelo responded, "There's an angel inside and I'm trying to let it out!" Bruce Epperley

Christmas Eve-I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. ~Charles Dickens-

Christmas-The Evangelist shows how, when they arrived at Bethlehem, they were the most insignificant and despised, so that they had to make way for others until they were obliged to take refuge in a stable, to share with the cattle, lodging, table, bedchamber and bed, while many a wicked man sat at the head in the hotels and was honored as lord. No one noticed or was conscious of what God was doing in that stable. He lets the large houses and costly apartments remain empty, lets their inhabitants eat, drink and be merry; but this comfort and treasure are hidden from them. 0 what a dark night this was for Bethlehem, that was not conscious of that glorious light! See how God shows that he utterly disregards what the world is, has or desires; and furthermore, that the world shows how little it knows or notices what God is, has and does.

Friday-keep your feet on the dry bank - you maintain as best you can your own inner peace, the best and strongest of who you are - and from that solid ground reach out a rescuing hand. "Mind your own business" means butt out of other people's lives because in the long run they must live their lives for themselves, but it also means pay mind to your own life, your own health and wholeness, both for your own sake and ultimately for the sake of those you love too. Take care of yourself so you can take care of them. A bleeding heart is of no help to anybody if it bleeds to death.

Saturday-The patience for waiting is possibly the greatest wisdom of all: the wisdom to plant the seed and let the tree bear its fruit.-John MacEnulty

Notes on annunciation-Advent 4

Dec. 21, Lk. 1, 2 Sam.7

Brad Wigger has been working on children’s images of God. Some children correlate Santa and God. (Since I portrayed Santa we may be in trouble, given pastoral egos.) Like God, Santa bestows gifts. As far as I can tell, we do not imagine that Santa’s naughty or nice list contains social justice issues.

Gabriel’s name may be God is a mighty warrior, but the message, that’s the meaning of angel, recall, is one of life not death.annunciation-it is possible that Mary is not of childbearing age yet. so, god ‘s great move depends on a young young woman, so the story of the baptist and Jesus would be framed by unlikely births--her engagement is arranged by the respective families-so again-her range of choice is limited here.Mary is baffled/perplexed/confused/disturb/agitated by the angel’s visit, and the formal greeting, something like all hail, one most favored, O Gifted One When Mary  asks how can this be, his answer is  indirect. Somehow the Holy Spirit is involved in this new life.The Spirit will be on Mary as the Spirit will be upon the disciples as Jesus says before the Ascension. It is part of a symbolic connection of a cloud, an overshadowing that denotes the presence of God, as in the Transfiguration.

Young or not, Mary knows her Scripture. the prayer of Hannah is an obvious source for her prayer. Her prayer reflects her coming to grips with the miraculous announcement of Gabriel.What a prayer-her whole being magnifies extols the Lord. mega-make great-pray with a megaphone and this is a song, a canticle, poetry in music? Sondheim on urging lyrics and music to be kept together. Mary may hear soft words from Gabriel, but she turns them back into tough words of change. Mary sees the birth of Jesus as heralding a battle of systems.Mary represents the hopes of all of Israel.In Is. 8:17 God was hiding the presence form the house of Jacob,now god’s very self will dwell with that selfsame people. They would walk in the light of the Lord (ch.2) God has carried them, borne them like a mother (ch. 46)

We get two great images of the strength of God.God uses his mighty arm to wrest the mighty from their thrones. At the same time that same strong arm holds on to the people like a parent with a toddler. That same strong arm is not being used in a strong arm tactic of violence.

messianic promise in 2 Sam 7 Just a note on the hope here. We do not know how much hope was placed in a new David, a Messiah at this time. Or passage goes back 1000 years before the birth of Christ. If Luke is using it, others must have continued to hold the promise dear for many years.the angels says he will rule over the house of Jacob,but it will be a different sort of rule. Indeed some  more mystical jewish sects had a deep messianic expectation of their leader just recently in New York. Followers of Moon see him as a new Christ  figure. Jesus will replay the words of the angel (ch. 18?) Jesus will replay her words about the will of God in the garden agony.From the reading on David, we get a good sense of how expectations can change over time. the word messiah and therefore Christ means anointed one. In our tradition we notice that priests, prophets, and kings were anointed. .This is a good Advent text as it links, past, present, future.7) I like how God, with a moreover, reverses David’s request and decides to be the giver, not receiver of gifts. Again, the issue of giving or receiving gifts is a good piece for spiritual growth.How do those appearin 2014?

Notes on Luke 2 for Christmas Eve

Dec. 24 2014

Some folks want Christmas to be just right with perfect placement of decorations, and foods and presents.Luke does a bit of this in this exquisitely structured piece we have heard so many times.He structures it along the lines of the elite and the masses.-

Luke is careful to place the birth of Jesus in a regional setting of the Roman Empire. In that way, he shows two contending ways of organizing life at the same time. He shows how god is using a hidden hand in the face of Roman imperial power. Augustus had been divinized.He was called son of God and Savior, we speak of the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome-the immaculate goddess of childbirth was with him and his mother claimed he was the child of Apollo and his father and mother both had visions the day of his birth. Augustus took his position after a huge power struggle. He was growing older. Here’s an important part for our story. he took on divine names that Luke uses to apply to a baby born in little Bethlehem, on the eastern outskirts of the empire. Son of God. Pax Romana both internal and external. He called himself first citizen but held dictatorial powers for life.Successors to the throne died around the time Jesus may have been born.We are certain of dates for the empire, but less so for the date of the birth of jesus. Divine time and human time do not always correspond neatly.

We don't know that much about Quirinius. I was taught that he was a mere functionary,but that was lazy. He was a rich, fairly high level bureaucrat in the Roman system. He was on the track to being a Roman elite, say a first century Jeb Bush, connected, rich, powerful. I like a governmental appointee is listed with the birth of Jesus.His census was a tax adjustment that demanded taxes be paid in cash and elicited a good bit of Jewish unrest, especially where Jesus grew up in Galilee. .

Society stereotyped shepherds as liars, degenerates, and thieves. The testimony of shepherds was not admissible in court, and many towns had ordinances barring shepherds from their city limits. The religious establishment took a particularly dim view of shepherds since the regular exercise of shepherds' duties kept them from observing the Sabbath and rendered them ritually unclean. The Pharisees classed shepherds with tax collectors and prostitutes, persons who were "sinners" by virtue of their vocation (Saterlee) In our time, the status of shepherds would be that of say ponographers, IRS evaluators, or perhaps Congress.  At the same time, the rulers such as Augustus were called shepherds in the bible.  

Look at the stained glass window in daytime.Stop for a moment and consider the utter dependence and vulnerability of an infant.That is where the hopes and fear sof th all the years was placed.Notice how it turns its back on power.-Every year Christmas arrives in the face of great powers, including the constant drumbeat of the shopping madness instead of the voice of heavenly choirs-do the angels sing? It does not say so explicitly. i like it as the formerly host of heaven as warriors have transformed into a choir.Their praise is to the highest point or in the highest most noble way, that could well be song, I think.-

The word usually translated as inn is translated as upper room in the story of the last supper.Emmanuel God with us is laid in a feeding trough, not a throne. This night, jesus is enthroned in that most unlikely of places, our very lives.

Dec. 28 Column

At this time of year, I often think of the Andy Rooney pearl: “the most glorious mess lies around the living room Christmas tree-don’t clean it up too soon.” Some of us will be celebrating Christmas season into the New Year, a tip of the hat to the 12 days of Christmas until Epiphany, January 6. We are in the gap between Christmas and New Years. I so admire the people who do not insist on the holiday being celebrated precisely at noon on the 25th and are flexible enough to adjust the varying needs of family  and the desire to get together.

Even the most insistent spiritual but not religious may enter the door of a church at Christmas time. As we approach New Year’s the secular celebrations have trounced the church as we mark the turn of yet another calendar page. Though the sands of the hourglasses are almost gone, there on the other side is the promise of a happy, healthy new born.

Too many rituals of family dysfunction mar the holiday. I do not grasp why it is not a get together unless feelings are hurt and someone is left crying. It is as if we walk around we so many grudges that we seek out a chance to unload that poisonous cargo.

The readings for this Sunday from Luke 2 include the lovely story of Anna and Simeon at the temple with 8 day old Jesus. One or maybe both actors are really old, even older than me, as our daughters would say, as in my mind they look the way we picture the outgoing year. They appear to be denizens of the temple precincts, the very model of pious, devout people. All of their lives, they have hoped for the sign that a new age was dawning, but year by year those hopes faded a bit, as Rome’s power seem to tighten its grip. They are guardians of the ritual of prayer and hope, twins.

Yet, hope exists in spite of the facts on the ground, not their absence. Hope may be doomed to disappointment, but its power lies in its capacity to imagine a new or brighter day.Simeon blesses, blesses, the child who was and is the embodiment of our hopes for a better way to live. I like to think that both Anna and Simeon receive a bit of youth again, as did Naomi in the great story of Ruth. In our time, Jews continue to celebrate the birth of a child and bless the child that he or she may grow into the life of Torah, marriage and good deeds. Elijah, the harbinger of the messianic age is welcomed there, for each new birth is the birth of hope.  

In some ways, I love the symbol of Father Time teetering toward the edge of extinction as an exhausted year stumbles to a close. As we age, that same feeling occurs as we hurtle toward retirement. Every movement toward turning a chapter in life brings the threat of unwelcome change and the promise of new life being born, not busy dying as Dylan said,     

Many of us have given up on the great ritual of making New Year’s resolutions. Too many failures have weakened the desire for self improvement. In the created Festivus, participants would air grievances, disappointments in those close to them. As a spiritual practice, this strikes me as salutary, a clearing of the emotional and mental baggage we lug throughout the year, for that matter, our lives. When the presents were taken up, I would burn the papers in the fireplace. I would write out old lingering ghosts of Christmases past and write them out and burn them along with the wrappings. Please consider creating some new rituals for the New Year and holding on to the ones that bring you health and jo

Sermon Notes Dec. 28-Luke 2

We often say that Christmas is for children.This little story brings the infant Jesus with an old woman and perhaps a man facing death ( but we do not know his age) Simeon is waiting for the comfort/consolation of Israel. In Greek his name sounds like a sign, so we get a word play when he speaks to Mary. From Hebrew it would mean being heard or listening. Anna is related to John, so grace or favor. Mention is made of her tribe. it was  blessed in Dt with all sorts of blessing, and the name itself means happy.The tribe is on the margins, however as it did not have the martial capability of driving out the inhabitants of its share of the promised land. Phanuel means face of god, and in later literature was an archangel's name.

I have always loved this little story in Luke’s gospel. I love how it is framed by both the old and the 8 day old child. I always feel a tinge of sadness, as Luke presents it as the  couple slipping away like the way we picture the old year giving way to the infant 2015. Nonetheless they glory in seeing this child, and their thrill is similar to that of Is. 7-8 in the birth of a royal child. It may have been different than they expected, for they receive revelation it appears, but they catch sight of a lifetime hope before their own lives close.

We do well to pay attention to entry points in a gospel and then keep an eye out if they are placed into an ending frame. Purification ritual for Mary alone from Leviticus , or it could be that the family or mother and child are in need of ritual cleansing/purification. By the time of Jesus the link to Adam and Eve in Eden and the temple as holy space was clear. So we are in quite a thicket here, a holy child, in a holy place, needs to undergo the same ritual of purification as everyone else.The sacrificial offering was a adjusted for poverty here. This is the clearest evidence from Lu,e that Mary and Joseph were not well off.

Jesus is circumcised and the rite of purification here is a bit muddled, perhaps. To be of god’s people included a phsycial mark on males very quickly, after the first week fo their young life.In our time, we have resistance to it as causing some pain or a sense of disfugurement ot boys, but we see it as a public health measure an dhav elost its relgious significance unless one is Jewish. He is marked as one of the people, but he is also marked for suffering. Life carries pain with it. Today, circumcision has the prayer for the speedy arrival of Messiah. It has a prayer for the child’s well-being, marriage, and good deeds and reverence for God. blood is drawn from the wound.the bit of blood  required of him at 8 days prefigures the blood pouring from him at the end of his young life. What does it mean to require a bit of flesh from God’s own? Jesus is made part of a people, a Jewish citizenship if you will. He is connected by an ancient, even primitive act.8th day and resurrection??

The year is closing on the calendar. In the church marking of time,we are well into a new year.Look back over the past year and decide that some things deserve to be cast aside and tossed out.Look with care at what is being born,what is generative in your life.

Sermon Notes Dec. 7

Is. 40:1-11, Ps. 85-Some associate the end times solely with days of wrath.The OT always keeps a tension between hope and endings. After words of warning last Sunday , we hear a decidedly different voice: one of comfort. Instead of shouts of warning, we hear of tenderness. Instead of the word of impending doom hanging overhead, we hear enough is enough. The dreadful waiting was over; the feared punishment had indeed come, and their country was in ruins. A page in national life had turned. God’s edict is for comfort to reach the people.

Instead of wilderness wandering, the people will be treated to a divine super-highway, with the obstacles flattened. One day our journey won’t be so hard, but it will be an easy trip. The bathrooms in the rest stops will all be clean. The vending machines will be cheap and will all work. The advent of jesus perhaps can change our images of the end. Perhaps the second coming will come with the words of Ps. 85, a time when righteousness and peace will kiss each other. One day all of the obstacles we have built against peace will fall, and the problem will be in creating conflicts. Let alone war. One day we won’t need laws to keep us in line.

After this wonderful announcement, heaven wants the news to spread, and we move to a dialogue in and with heaven. The prophet’s words in response to the request to announce the comforting news that the punishments are at an end are utterly depressed. After all, the prophet has seen destruction. Why bother, life is so fragile, so transient, so ephemeral. God’s breath/spirit does cause flourishing but withering. What’s the use? What’s the point.? As we heard last week, the leaves seem dry; life seems barren and frail.

Please note that it seems that the prophet is in the midst of a vision in the midst of heaven, and his first word is arguing with the assembled host. I think that prophet’s sudden shift from depression to hope is the result of the prophet’s cathartic words of depression allowing him to see a note of hope. Here’s something to hold on to, the faithful promise of God. To be able to pray like this is a sign of abundant trust in God’s patience. We’re family, and families need to talk things out sometimes.

At passage end, we have 2 images of God: one of might and one of compassion. The emphasis seems to me to be on the gentleness after the terrifying destruction of Jerusalem and the pain of exile. For Christians, the last image redefines the image of God in compassion rather than the iron fist of might. As the faith developed, that second image of God started to blossom. . God’s power is more often demonstrated by the power of tender care and to take on more and more weight, as we can see with Jesus. Mark’s gospel was written with the destruction of Jerusalem in the reader’s mind.It also uses our Isaiah passage to introduce Jesus and the divine project. In the end, the destruction of Jerusalem did not teach a long-lasting lesson for moral change. Somehow suffering must be infused with meaning, noble meaning, or else it serves to depress and corrode the moral sense, not uplift or transform it. Human wrong is so deep-seated that God would work from the inside out. Many of our brothers and sisters practice Advent waiting with undisguised glee at the assumed coming destruction. That leaves out Incarnation and Resurrection. My sense is that God will use examples such as the highway of the Lord to transform and build, not annihilate. Jesus Christ did not lead a life of destruction but of teaching a different path and healing to allow people to discover that path. It’s no accident that Jesus would take on the title of the Good Shepherd. This is a time of year when our hearts go out to people in trouble, and we try to give them a helping hand out of the troubles. All of us become part of one flock, one family.

week of Dec. 7 Devotional

Sunday Ps 85 has one of my favorite images at the end-where righteousness (right relations) and peace shall kiss.Such intimate imagery often makes us uncomfortable, since we rarely think of such matters in terms of intimacy.what other ways could we express that thought? Have you seen it happen? How would you like to see it happen? why do you think this is an Advent psalm?

Monday-In the movie of Harper Lee's classic book To Kill a Mockingbird, young Scout tells her father Atticus about being upset on her first day at school. He says, "You never really understand another person until you understand things from (his or her) point of view, until you climb inside (their) skin and walk around in it." In some mysterious way, that's what Christians believe God has done in Jesus, and calls us to do. Ira Kent Groff

Tuesday-from Abbey of the Arts-Could you pause right now, for just 5 minutes, quieting your thoughts and breathing deeply? (yes, even just 5 minutes can offer deep refreshment if you give yourself over to it) What might you discover?

Wednesday-"In the beginning . . . the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep" (Genesis 1:1-2). In other words, God started with nothing, zero, and out of it brought everything.In the end, says John, "I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it; from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them" (Revelation 20:11). In other words, there is zero again, and out of it God brought a new heaven and a new earth. Perhaps more than for anything else, God is famous for calling something precious out of something that doesn't even exist until God calls it. At the beginning of each one of us it happened, and at the end of each one of us maybe by God's grace it will happen again.~originally published in Whistling in the Dark and later in Beyond Words

Thursday-Mirth is God's medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it. Grim care, moroseness, anxiety----all this rust of life, ought to be scoured off by the oil of mirth. It is better than emery. A man without mirth is like a wagon without springs, in which one is caused disagreeably to jolt by every pebble over which it runs." Henry Ward Beecher

Friday-Miroslav Volf reminds us of a quote from David Kelsey-”we should worship God for God's own sake,not for what we get out of worship.: What do you think Kelsey means?How should worship reflect his point?

Saturday-Children struggle with the large questions of life, and we don’t often give them credit for that. We assume that they’re not capable of engaging in conversations that we assume are more philosophical and abstract. I don’t think that’s the case.What they don’t have is the language. It’s our obligation as educators, adults, clergy to give them the language. My feeling is that language is story, and so through story they are able to deal with these larger theological questions.Sandy Sasso

Some thoughts on missing someone during the holidays

I write on what would have been my mother’s 95th birthday. She was a difficult person. Still, I miss her annual description of why her half-frozen turkey was not finished in what she deemed the allotted time. She imagined a nationwide brownout from everyone cooking, but the brownout was directed at her oven solely, so it was working slowly.You think you had to deal with insufferable in-law conversation , the blowhard anti Obama clod, or the infinitely self-righteous liberal bloviating on Ferguson, try to talk with that mixture of technical imagination and self-centeredness.

The fine writer Connie Schultz got me thinking in this vein  in a recent column.On Facebook, she prayed that the day would land gently on those who were missing someone during the holiday.I join in her prayer. I hope to be able to offer a workshop at church on holiday blues.

So what to do? I Be hospitable to your feelings. Holidays contain ambivalent feelings. Admit you miss them. No, I am not suggesting another funeral, but it is perfectly fine to tell stories about them, to allow their name to be mentioned. Here are some suggestions for dealing with them.

Generally, I am a bit detached from “retail therapy.” I am too cheap for its allure, I suppose. I am not among those who decry Black Friday. Indeed, a study suggests that allowing us to have an orgy of shopping helps the yearly budget. Not  only are we flight or fight creatures, we are feast or famine creatures.If we allow ourselves a special buying feast, we settle down more during the “famine” periods. The world is a tough place, and if we have a big sale day for shopping, I am not going to criticize it.

Maintain holiday traditions but also be willing to change or adapt some. Ri So, make the three level mint, e persimmon, and pork jello salad that even the dog avoids,utal gives us a sense of order within emotional chaos. Even though, things will never be the same, we put one foot in front of the other and move.So kakje that three layer jellos salad with mint, persimmon, and pork that even the dog won’t even touch. It’s OK to include golden oldies. Once again, our youngest daughter asked for seconds with those dreaded words,..while you’re up.Yes, that includes sports. Is it possible, has Detroit won two Thanksgiving Day games in a row? Be willing to notice if something is worthy of becoming a holiday tradition. Rituals can help memorialize a loss without being maudlin.

Continue to work on  your relationship with the deceased. It does no one any favors to idealize them into a saint when they were like most of us, far less than perfect  in one form or another.That may well be to forgive them those very imperfections. My generation  has many grandparents now, but we rarely have dealt with our disappointments or disputes with our parents. It’s time to let the snow cover over grudges.

The word holiday emerged from the words holy day.Prayer is the great tool of spiritual therapy. Be willing to pray candid,confused prayers. Prayers,especially public ones, should be beautifully rendered. Yet, they are a form of communication. When no one else wants to hear our confusion, God is more than willing. If the prayers go back over the same issues, God does not seem to mind leftover prayers. God has embraced the memory of a loved one into the divine life, so we can talk and talk about missing them. May this start of the holiday season be a gracious one. May you create memories to spare for years to come, with those whom you love imperfectly and well.

Nov. 30 Devotional Pts for week

Sunday-Ps. 80 starts us with the Advent theme of God’s presence. While the Psalmist is fearful of God’s anger, the writer wants to experience the fullness of God’s presence. In the Incarnation, we find the image of God embedded in Jesus Christ, an approachable image.When do you wish a more ineffable, unreachable God and when do you wish to encounter The Presence?

Monday-Advent marks the beginning of the church year. So we are over a month ahead of the calendar. We march by the calendar but also by god’s time, so different than our limited grasp of that physical fundamental. Where do you need  a fresh spiritual start? What do you prize enough to pretty well let alone?

Tuesday-The King of Love-, as I sang this song over and over, the message and promises sank into my memory bank. To this day, I can sing the six verses by memory. It continues to be a powerful reminder of the definition of "God-king"—love, shepherd, goodness, living water, carried gently, fearless before death's dark vale, cross guiding, healing grace, goodness that never fails.

From God Pause

Wednesday-There is no time for love to be born/ in a world flailing under fear,/trampled by terror, crushed by callousness./There is no room for love to be born/under the heft of pressing grief,no open portals in the perpetual busyness/or the list of endless tasks minted newly each morning,/where “to do” never seems to include “love more…."

Thursday-"While I am looking for something large, bright, and unmistakably holy, God slips something small, dark, and apparently negligible in my pocket. How many other treasures have I walked right by because they did not meet my standards?" Barbara Brown Taylor in Learning to Walk in the Dark.

-Friday-The holiday season abounds with memory.I was surprised when our younger daughter did an imitation of me disliking a song on the radio. it brought a gleam of joy to her face.What memories do you conjure up from years ago. What are favorite memories of you that others have? What do you think are especially treasured memories for God?

Saturday-We so easily speak of Advent as a waiting time. It captures a number of aspects of waiting. for the second coming, it is waiting for an event we do not fully grasp but have confidence will be good, just as the first arrival, the first advent of Jesus. Of course it deals with t waiting to celebrate the natal first advent of Jesus. We go through a dizzying set of preparations for Christmas, but we do neglect spiritual practices and preparation during Advent. When we wait, we can prepare.

Sermon Notes Is. 64

Nov. 30-Is. 64

The leaves that are left on the ground are dry and shriveled   Are we not more than leaves blown into the street for weeping? Advent is a season on reflecting on time, as has the career of Stephen Hawking in the new movie A Theory of Everything.  It reflects the promise contained in a new beginning. Is.  64 has such shifts. It tries to understand divine motivation.

Thoughtful reader of Isaiah agree that this section was written in a time of disappointment.the return of the exiles did not make everything perfect again. Time drags when we are down.How time dragged waiting from 5:30 until 8:30 to hear the ferguson verdict. When we feel powerless, a religious impulse is to hope for dramatic divine intervention.

In our time, we resist the idea that God could be angry as too emotional, too much like us, to like the sweet God we have constructed. Could it be that God is angry? The word here is better to be furious, as in the splinters of a piece of wood flying about when split.Could it be that God is hiding? Could  be that God is not interested in the plight of the people? It looks at the quid pro quo we tend to have-God blesses us if we do good. Here it realizes that we do wrong. Even if we do good it seems stained, corrupt. Worse, are we calling upon God as we should? Is God holding back the divine power to help and save? It uses divine self-regard. after all,we are the work of your hands. If we are not at the level of artistic creation that you would wish,does some of the fault lie with the artisan? God, you have labored long and hard over us. Is it just to be angry for a long time? Is it just to be angry over the failures of your handiwork?

A recurring theme in the Old Testament is the Day of the Lord. The hope was that God would act as in the exodus and raise up Israel and destroy her enemies. Some prophets then turned the image and saw it as directed against the people themselves.These end time imaginings reflect some of the anti-creation images of other OT passages. Light turns to darkness. The very mountains tremble as in an earthquake, an ancient sign of the presence of God all the way back to Sinai. We, like them, have heard since Sunday School lessons the stories of God’s power. Where do we see it now?

People are not praying because God seems deaf.Their prayers go unanswered. Time waiting on a prayer seems to take an eternity.

OK, the new beginning has yet to wipe the slate clean.What do we do in the interim? Paul sees the day of the Lord as having started with Jesus christ in a decisively new way. I Cor. 1 sharing thanksgiving for the gifts we receive.  This is difficult for us, as we assume we earn what we get, and we resist the very idea of gift. Paul says that we do not lack any spiritual gifts. We are enriched in every way, including speaking and knowledge.  This letter starts with a view of God more congenial to contemporary Christians, He prays we keep strong and blameless until Is the day of Jesus Christ now the same as the Day of the Lord?.We are strong by being in community/fellowship with Christ and each other.We have the resources to start making the world a better place.we start from within.then it radiates outward.Instead of fires ablaze in cars in Ferguson, we imagine a world with the light of goodness.

Ps. 80

we are moving toward the end of the third book of the Psalms. The lectionary breaks up the psalm.

Is the prayer directed at God in the heavens or the microcosm of creation in the temple itself?

Recall in ANE material, shepherd=ruler often.

We have a framing device of restore us at 3 and 7.We return to restoration at v. 19.

Instead of verdant pasture,poeple are fed with bread of tears.This could be an excellent pt. toaddress holiday grief.


Like Is.64 this deals with the anger, this time, the smoldering anger of god. Notice that the anger is directed at prayers within a prayer itself. So, is the desire for God's presence due to God turning the divine back to the prayers out of anger? Three times it elicits presence in letting face shine and being saved.

V. 17 is surely reflected in some view of the exaltation of Jesus in Christian literature, including the creeds.

Notes on Is.64

If so-called third Isaiah is built around the theme of disappointment, this passage certainly fits the bill. It fits the previous lament. Therefore, it fits well a time of the fear of decline and a sense of brooding disappointment abroad in the land.

This is a good entry pt. into apocalyptic thinking.When people feel powerless they look to God to act in a decisive way.For the autumn, the shriveled leaf image works exceptionally well. For a moment as one reads, it leads one to think the prophet has seaid that we do not see you since the great acts of old.

I absolutely love the notion that people are  not praying because God has not been responsive. Yet, the poet wants more than God to listen; god should act and act soon.

One could perhaps deal here with the divine emotions, including anger. Is it a primitive view of god,or a proper one. How doe sit fit then with the orthodox view of an impassive god? Isn't the sight of suffering enough to move God here? anger here is wrath, very angry-it has the sense of a stick being broken and splinters flying.

How do you read, in this instance, the image of potter and clay and the divine anger? One could use this artistic image as opposed to other image sof God in the OT.

Father language is not used all that frequently in the OT.what is its effect here?

Devotional Pts. Week of Nov. 16

Sunday-Ps.123 touches on the effect of scorn or derision on one’s life.It takes the problem to God, the Loving and Accepting One. If God hears our prayer what does it matter what others may say about us? Easier prayed than done, but a steady diet of praying out our deepest needs will work a change in the soul.

Monday-My father-in-law often jokes with me at the end of day. He asks, "So, did you wipe out all the evil today?" There will always bework to do in God's kingdom.This song,What Fellowship, What Joy Divine  contains some reminders that the work we do is not our own. Nor do we do it alone. The work of the church is always done while leaning on the everlasting arms of Jesus.... The echo of the chorus makes clear that this is group work. .May we find joy knowing that God is in charge of the work that we do, and that we work—and sing—in the fellowship. Keith Anderson

Tuesday-Religious language reinforces a "do-it-right or not-it-at-all" attitude, mentally translating perfect as faultless. Yet the original New Testament Greek telios, and the Latin perfectum (behind our English word), mean "complete, mature, or whole." And the Greek noun telos means "goal or finish line." The apostle Paul can say, "Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal (telos); but I press on to make it my own,... Let those of us then who are mature (telioi) be of the same mind" (Philippians 3:12, 15). Ira Kent Groff

Wednesday-God’s life is an utterly shared phenomenon. If you are “holy” alone, you are not holy at all. Salvation is not a divine transaction that takes place because you are morally perfect, but much more: it is an organic unfolding, a becoming who you already are, an inborn sympathy with and capacity for the very One who created you and everything else too. You can then recognize that same deep sympathy or resonance in all others—even in its rejected or denied forms Richard Rohr

Thursday-Psalm 90:1-8, 12 -Towering mountains, firm, dependable, unwavering in grace, no shifting shadow, no turning away.How small am I? How fragile, how finite?My good moments and my bad, a roller coaster by the hour; just when I've got it, your perfection sheds light on something else.But what really matters? My failure? My sin? For even my evil will fade back to dust.Yet your mercy: firm, dependable, unwavering in grace, no shifting shadow, no turning away. -Keep my eyes on you, O God. You are constant even when I am a mess. Remind me what is important and give me life that is abundant in your love, Amanda Kempthorne

Friday-Music as a spiritual practice means we enter a song as a way to discover and stretch beyond and within.Whether the music is contemplative or groovy, singing weaves the words and ideas into our consciousness using both brain hemispheres. What we upload in this way we test and often come to believe. What we believe, in turn, becomes part of our core.Richard Corrigan

Saturday-Sometimes I can get so darn serious about it all (and yes, somethings really do need serious thought and action). But the world will not be saved by this kind of concern and the action it inspires alone. We will also be saved by all that is delightful and beautiful, galootish and goofy. We are continually restored and redeemed in our moments of awe and wonder that such fine things can exist in our lives and in the world. These are the things we love - all of it, the big and little, the cares and concerns, the sublime and mysterious, the daily and ordinary, and every thing that produces a chuckle, giggle, or belly laugh.

Nov. 16 notes-all lectionary readings

I remember some  early Christmases. Our youngest couldn’t count yet but tried to figure out if she had  the same presents as her sister. I don’t know if the story is true, but a church bulletin had a note that the self-esteem group should come through the back door.

Ps 123-contempt strikes deeply at our self-regard, self-esteem. we may wonder if they are right. We may absorb some of their venom and see ourselves as lesser.For all of the fun we have made of ways of bolstering self-esteem., it is a demonstrable  variable-people who see themselves as capable, as worth the effort, are able to achieve-are more resilient capable of working with others. If God sees us as worthy, so how much credence will we give to the opinion of other people?.When love goes bad, it can curdle into contempt and derision.Our souls, our very life, our very self (soul is not inclusive enough of the whole being=nephesh) is filled not with celebration but ridicule, scorn, contempt.

Deborah and talents of a woman-not getting full co-operation for the group-the people have  fallen into a recipient-dependent mode= what economists call the free rider problem for public goods. We don't see the talents in others, especially when stereotypes blind us.

Talents were a large sum of money (15-20 yrs of wages?or more) fear stalks them use what we have hidden talents. I would think that this story became the basis for talents to include our skills.It is lack of self-regard that places the recipient in a difficult situation. All he sees is fear of retribution and relative lack of resources. Remember a talent was a huge amount of money. We are talking Exxon and governmental sums of money here. In other words, he cannot perceive abundance. Combined they prevent him from acting as he should. Liberals may go along a bit with this parable until the end,when they cannot bear the one with the least being punished, but they are often uncomfortable with its emphasis on vast sums of money. They get much happier next week.Conservatives see this as an open invitation to make money, and love that the winners get rewarded though their prudence and industry..

Our youngest daughter has some exegetical skills. Right away, she noticed that in last week’s parable, the women are punished for not being prudent, This week, some is being punished for being careful, perhaps overly prudent.On the other hand, they could have been prudent and used the availability of oil to be ready when they needed it. It was similar to being in MO and getting 2.53 gasoline one fine day.-

How do we act if we believe that God’s way will win, but we have no idea when? How do we live in the interim time? Could it mean that we neither squander nor hoard our resources? enter the joy of your master. What does this mean do you think?  How to deal with abundance in the midst of waiting? I T 5-encourage each other and build one another up-how to do that? the great trinity of virtues, faith, hope, and love defend us from attacks.He seems to say that we should keep awake, but that waking or sleeping we are in a fight day or night. Encourage one another-build one another up. when I was young, people were afraid to do much building up-they thought it would make someone proud or even weak. You toughened people up, even berated them.Such  serves to internalize the feelings of contempt.Far far better, to help each other discover what we can do.

Devotional thoughts week of Nov. 23

Sunday-Ps.100 is nice and short. One wonders if it applies to god as king or the areas of the temple itself. The doxology tune is called Old Hundredth as it was set to a version of this text. wesang a version of this psalm on All Saints and sang it again at 10AM worship today. how doe shearing it differ from your reading of it in your spiritual path?

Monday-For some reason, "I looked at this statue and saw the eyes of Jesus looking at me with compassion, inviting me to come to him. It was then I decided to 'try out this church.' It was the following Sunday that I experienced a new kindling of my faith. Since then I have experienced God's forgiving and loving grace in Jesus Christ. Oh, by the way, I have also discovered that the 'no hands of Jesus' on the statue reminds me every day that I am Jesus' hands sharing Jesus' love and forgiveness in my daily life."

Tuesday-May your body be blessed. May you realize that your body is a faithful and beautiful friend of your soul.and may you be peaceful and joyful and recognize that your senses are sacred thresholds.May you realize that holiness is mindful, gazing, feeling, hearing, and touching. May your senses gather you and bring you home.May your senses always enable you to celebrate the universe and the mystery and possibilities in your presence here.May the eros of the earth bless you.—John O’Donohue

Wednesday-the rule of prayer that stood out to me.  It was probably that trip that awakened my own inner monastic and I took home some pieces with me that day. I tried them on like clothing whenever I would feel overwhelmed, the rule of prayer becoming a constant companion, a warm sweater on a cold day from Abbey of the Arts

Thursday-From Abbey of the Arts."Honoring Saints & Ancestors.Abbey of the Arts"   We continue this theme in our Poetry Party this month. What are you continuing to discover about how your ancestors speak across the veil?-Arranging old photos a can indeed be a direct spiritual experience of the communion of saints. where do you keep favorite photos? How often do you page through them?

Friday-the cold snap brought us a bit of snow. Our recycling bins were frozen. I pulled and pulled and freed one. It threw up a blizzard of ice and snow on my face. It was a remarkably stupid thing to do, but it awakened me to how easily i sleepwalk through life. What a mistake like that you have made lately?

Saturday-Who can know fully what Christ means when he says that we will see him in his glory? But because we have already seen him in the glory of our long delayed but dearest hope, I believe that the faith is by no means blind that sees his word as not just a poem, and only a poem, but as high and unimaginable truth.-from Secrets in the Dark

Nov. 23-Ezek. 34, Mt. 25:31-46 Justice v. Charity in God's country

Nov. 23 Ezek. 34, Mt. 25:31-46

The last two weeks, we had parables that would delight political conservatives. The bridesmaids don't share their oil, and last week the shrewd investors got praised by the stern rich man on a trip. We come this morning to the favorite biblical quote for politically  liberal, charitable Christians. This is a parable, so it is designed to move us out of our usual thought world.I rather doubt if it is a ethical prescription any more than the previous stories we read of the kingdom of heaven.

Here the big surprise is seeing or not seeing Jesus in our actions. Neither group saw Jesus.

When are they separated; when are they together? Who are the least: are h they those in need, or or they the disciple of Jesus, the little ones? Act like what you are-act like who you have become Act out of intrinsic good, not for benefit of who sees it-not for the hope of heaven, not for the  fear of punishment. Who are the nations, all or within the church Gentile and Jew alike? Grasping one’s membership,one citizenship in God’s country, God’s way is to be good and to do good without seeking recognition,reward or punishment.It is a a wayof being in this world.

In Ezekiel, God feels sorry for the lean sheep being pushed around by the fat sheep. God sees that as a failure in being a shepherd, so things are going to change. The choir has sung a psalm that fit this reading. After the election, we can see it as a public judgement of the shepherding done by political representatives/ Ezekiel new ruler, he does not use the word king any more perhaps had messianic hopes built into it.In this prophetic work, it is clear what the measure of public justice is. It should be to limit the scope of the need for private charity.Ebenezer Scrooge would not need to get a goose for the Cratchits if he paid a livable wage in the first place. Further Ezekiel goes after the fat tough sheep who not only push around the little ones but they muddy, no they foul the water that is to be shared, the water for the other s who need a drink,.The public dimension of this is obvious. Economists try to pretty it up by calling it externality. Thi is a clarion call for community of care across the board. I shudder to think of God’s justice when we are asked about a generation’s worth of ignoring the needs of the mentally ill, especially those who need to be committed. God is furious that the political leaders have failed the people repeatedly. I tremble since the word pastor refers to a shepherd. God is also furious at how the members of the community, the flock behave. God is angry at how the fat and strong sheep act. This time, God’s pasture is justice-I will feed them with justice. It is crystal clear in the bile that a measure of justice is how the poor and vulnerable are treated. Justice is a collective, structural, social condition, equal protection of the laws, the 14th Amendment calls it. Here, justice means that the need for charity decreases.

The mark of character is how one acts when no one is watching. It isthe idea of what happends in Vegas stays in Vegas.Here the mark of Christian character is how do we act if we do not seeJesus among us? Better put, when do we see Jesus constantly among us?

When were sheep and goats separated? Often were in the same flocks-sometimes they were separated at grazing time.By and large, thesheepand goatslive together. If separation is to be done,God does it, notus.

Devotional Pts. Week of Nov. 2

Sunday-Ps 34 has the great line, taste and see that the Lord is good.Replace the word saints for righteous ones , and one gets a sense of why it was selected for All Saints day readings. It prompts in me the question, why does life seem so much more complicated than this? why do we need to push such promises over to the afterlife?

Monday (From God Pause, Oct. 25)Grandpa Knute had a ministry; he would spend his Sunday afternoons visiting the homebound, singing Norwegian hymns for them. Since Grandpa Knute himself had been widowed for a number of years, suspicious connections were made in the minds of some.He likely sang (from the old country) "Den store hvide flok" ("Behold the Host Arrayed in White,") and "I himmelen, i himmelen" ("In Heaven Above,") but also "Peace to Soothe Our Bitter Woes", bringing comfort to those bereaved, including himself, who outlived his spouse and nine of his eleven children, two of whom died in an 1897 lightning storm.

Tuesday-"putting the most charitable construction" part of Luther's explanation (words I learned in confirmation). To the occasional chagrin of her children who came storming home after a schoolyard spat, she would gently explore why the offending child may have acted in the way she or he did—the most charitable construction. By her words and example, we learned and grew. More than just the sentiments of a dutiful son, these thoughts are echoed by a cousin who similarly says of her aunt: "She was the most affirming person I have known."(God Pause)

Wednesday-”there’s a wideness in God’s mercy” Our human attributes for God tend to be those of power and might, wisdom and strength and the like.  While power and might can destroy, mercy recovers, refreshes, redeems, restores, renews. We may be so fearful of mercy, lest it be exploited, that "we make this love too narrow by false limits of our own; and we magnify its strictness with a zeal God will not own."There's a wideness there, more than we can see, and with it we can breathe, freely.

Thursday-It's extraordinary how many numbers we carry around in our heads—countless telephone and fax numbers, ., ZIP codes, area codes, and so on and so forth.Numbers are lifeless and boring abstractions, yet for each of us there are some that are so charged that, if we happen to be paying attention, they can make our hearts skip a beat. The year somebody we loved was born or died... The number of steps there were to climb to our bedroom as a child. The age we were when we first fell in love. Uninteresting as they are in themselves, numbers remind us that, if we have our wits about us, almost anything we look at has treasure buried in it.

Friday-Micah 3:5-12-It is hard to wake up to the words of Micah. Micah is crying out in the darkness of a world torn by war and mothers crying out for food for starving children. He brings a word from God who is not only distressed that his creation has fallen into deep darkness, but is downright angry that the very People he has called to be a beacon of light are a part of the darkness.

Saturday-Which dimension of your work needs more attention: your inner work (prayer, meditation, journaling); your outer work (finding a vocation that fulfills you and helps mend the world); or your sense of connection to the greater work (the integration of your microchip into the eternal arc of God's work)? Don't try for anything: just be with the creative tension. See if you hear a whisper of invitation. (Ira Kent Groff)

All Saints Mix -Rev. 7, Josh. 3

Nov. 2 All Saints Rev. 7, Josh. 3   

We receive a vision, a  brief picture of the saints in heaven -they have arrived in the Promised land called heaven-  crossed the Jordan between life and death, life here and a fuller life with God, within the very life of god.The dead live. Not only do they live; they live an exalted life in the very throne room of God. They may have been despised on earth, but in the sight of god they are utter royalty.they received promises from both parts of the Bible. the lamb and the shepherd get brought together. The living water is available for people who thirst no longer for a better world. It is an extended play on dwelling with God (tabernacles feast) when Israel dwelt in tents, so did God. When israel dwelt in homes, god presided in the temple. Now the people live in God’s own dwelling place, God’s own heavenly tabernacle. the robes are washed, baptized, in blood, but they are dyed white, not red. they sparkle with life. One could assume that they are martyrs at the hands of the state.Victims of bloodshed are now in the very throne room, the altar, the very residence of the Holy One.  At the same time, we gain access to heaven through the life, the work, the faithfulness, the death and resurrection of that same slain little Lamb of god, Jesus Christ.

We get Jericho as first stop in the Promised land-needed to keep their distance from the ark

Not a military action, it is a liturgical procession. It frames the story of the parting of the red sea in leaving and now the river parts to enter the Promised Land. Can it be an accident that the town is called Adam? The saints of Israel are in liturgical or choral procession. In a way, it is the attack of the saints.the walls fall with ritual worship, not the force of arms. Here is the Bible at its most martial, the conquest of the Promised Land, but the entry is through worship, not force of arms.Their standing in the throne room answers the plea of the preceding chapter, who can stand?

At first, i wanted to draw a bright line between being on top in Joshua and being a victim in Revelation, but it is not that easy. The Joshua story, after all, is a reimagining the entry and conquest, when Israel and Judah were already defeated. They cannot even imagine winning a war, so it is place directly through the hands of god through action of worship, their connection with the divine. In reverse fashion, the victim martyrs are now on top, literally, in heaven, when they were on the bottom on earth. To some degree, our view of heaven projects our fondest hopes on the future. it also may well project a reversal of that which causes us so much pain here on earth. their voices may be stilled on earth, but they resound in heaven.

American slaves called the Ohio river, the Jordan, the route to the promised land of freedom. Some of us call the passage from death into the new life in God in heaven the Jordan.

We get a rationale for heaven in this short piece from i John about the lavish love of god. Can such divine love respect the love lavished on us only before we die?. In Bargainers and Beggars (1919) James Huntington hit the nail on the head: "In [God] alone do we find the full realization of bestowal, of donation. For only his own love prompts him to give existence to his creatures, and to continue to endow them with what they have, or are, or ever can become."