Column Draft on Small but Significant Acts

As I write this, I need to prepare some snacks for the Oasis Women’s shelter annual trivia fundraiser. (Last year, our team won).It set me to ponder the impact of small sites or large projects. By definition, trivia is about small nuggets of information. Place eight people around a number of tables , and it is the source of a nice bit of cash for that important program for the community. In the face of a huge problem such as family abuse, we can scoff at seeming bandages to try to staunch the flow of a gaping social wound.

This week we continued a Bible Study on the book of Nehemiah, not one that people gravitate toward, usually. Its start details the difficulties in trying to rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem, almost a century and a half after the Babylonians destroyed the temple and carted off the remaining elite from the city.In a way, it is a meditation on change, large and small. Yes, in a terrible catastrophic attack, Jerusalem fell.. For years, little of big action occurred. The sheer size and scope of a problem can then lead to despair. The issue that seems unmanageable. How does one even start to address it?

In time, even if it was not as grand, the temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt. Year after year, the city apparently fell into greater and greater ruin, so that its wall crumbled in many places. Nehemiah assigned teams of workers to fix areas near them. It reminds me of the wilson notion that if a seemingly small thing in a neighborhood, such as a broken window or burned out street light is not repaired, things start to decline and cascade. a small point cascades into eventual ruin.In time, one gets the devastation that marks East St Louis or its larger counterpart across the great river. we mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, where an assassination in  a piece of the Austro-=hungarian empire launched a concatenation of moves that resulted in one of the awful slaughter benches of history.

disasters are large-scale events. the sheer amount of wreckage challenges the human imagination and it s capacity to respond. the specter of disaster leads to dread.The definiton of hubris is the unwillingness to confront the many difficulties of large scale planning, action, and implementation. The wreckage is Iraq right now is a grim testament to such arrogance.

When I was young, i was influenced by a book by E. F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful. He noticed that scale itself can often be the source of problems.Big projects do solve issues. They also create whole new sets of issues and problems. We are not adept at predicting such changes, hence phrases such as unanticipated or unforeseen consequences. Nehemiah faced concerted opposition. he planned and organized resources for his work. He made what seemed to be an enormous project to be manageable, and the walls of Jerusalem, smaller, yes, were rebuilt.

In Jesus Christ, God took the small route. the god of splitting the Red Sea was fully present in one person from a small town in the north of Israel. as the song says in Jesus Christ superstar, why did you pick such a backward time in such a strange land?... Israel in 4BC had no mass communication.” Throughout Scripture, large events are mediated thorugh individuals and a small remnant of a nation within the great big world.

gIven human frailty perhaps small scale  answers fit our fallible nature. Perhaps, Alton can look at small scale changes that cna add up to an improvement in its doleful economic climate. Perhaps, a focus on project sthat can be accomplished within our resources, instead of a doleful look to its industrial past could be the doorway to a new futre.

Devotional Notes Week of June 29

Sunday-Ps. 13 is my go to psalm as an example of a lament psalm. It’s short, and it ends on an upbeat note, as do most lament prayers in that great prayer book for us. Please consider using this simple pattern as a way to structure prayer when in hard times. Prayers do not always have to be spontaneous. The Spirit works through pattern as well. why not utilize the spiritual gifts we are given through the ages?

Monday-When it comes to hymns in general, I have often found the second and third verses to be especially meaningful, or even better than the first. In this familiar and beloved hymn that is certainly true for me. The writer, H. Percy Smith, captures the sentiment that I often feel when I am lacking inspiration. When I have difficulty in the creative endeavor, when I am stymied by lack of creative energy, or I cannot glean anything of substance from a particular passage of scripture, I am "slow to heart." (From God Pause)

Tuesday-This is why we journey:/to retrieve our lost intimacy with the world,/every creature a herald of poems/that sleep in streams and stones.

“Missing you” scrawled on a postcard sent home,/but you don't follow with/"wish you were here."

This is a voyage best made alone.---Christine Valters Paintner

Wednesday-The Blessings of Jesus

Blessed are those who know their need for theirs is the grace of heaven.-Blessed are those who weep for their tears will be wiped away. Blessed are the humble for they are close to the sacred earth.-Blessed are those who hunger for earth’s oneness for they will be satisfied.-Blessed are the forgiving for they are free.-Blessed are the clear in heart for they see the Living Presence.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they are born of God.-John Philip Newell

Thursday-The mind plays tricks on us. I was at a restaurant and the waitress filled my diet coke glass with iced tea.I knew that the drink was different but had no notion why.Soemtimes the frame makes the picture.It has been shown that different languages create different capaciyties to work with ideas. When we expect something to appear, we assume that it will and have to search to come up with an alternative. Think of prayer as different ways of coming at our spirutal needs.

Friday-”holding a grudge is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” Why do we wish to nurture grudges like fragile blooms? Why is it so hard ot let go of the pain of hurt? Why do we think that a grudge does not poison us or our relationships?

Saturday-You spread out the dazzling canopy of the heavens-and established the deep foundations of the earth;-you lifted up mountains and hills, high and stately,-and poured out oceans and rivers, flowing free.(Presbyterians for Earth care) So many of us find traces of god’s handiwork in the beauty of creation. Consider writing a similar prayer piece for where you live.

Gen.22 Sermon Notes

June 29-Genesis 22

I have trouble with the idea of obedience. I was delighted when one did not hear love honor, obey in the marriage vows. Blind obedience strikes me as an invitation to sin or dreadful mistake. Should Abraham have said no to this order in the first place? His name is called toward death at first, but it concludes with his name calling toward life.

The temple is on this site.Why would God wish to test the strength of Abraham’s love of god or Isaac in this way?The story of the binding of Isaac, recall his name means laughter, is called the aqedah by our Jewish brethren who struggle with this story.

I always thought that this story can be read as a test of the character of God by Abraham. It seems to mean that he is calling what he suspects is god’s bluff. The Lord will provide when he son asks about the sacrifice, and indeed a ram appears caught in a thicket just in time. Hebrew narrative is capable of cinematic speed and images, but here it slows down to mark each step by tortured, torturous step.Hagar weeps and cannot bear to be near her dying son. Abraham will be as close as possible as the instrument of his son’s sacrificial death

Some Jews look at the story of the Jewish jesus and shake their heads. At least, Isaac was spared in the end, but here, god does see the son, the only son, the only beloved son on the cross.For Christians, was God not tested to the limit in the crucifixion? In the creed, we speak of god’s only begotten son.Did god not answer it in the resurrection? Here God in effect self-sacrifices. Jesus is as silent in his trial as Isaac is here; are both to be seen as sacrificial lambs? We coninue to sacrifice our children and countless children of each other to the gods of war We try to bind the future by our action and attitudes, or maybe more difficult by the comfortable choice of inaction as opposed ot the risks of action now.To a lesser degree, we are willing to sacrific eour children to our own missed ambitions.

   Sin binds us all as tightly as Isaac.At Easter not only did Jesus find himself unbound from death, but we start to grasp that the tight bidnding of sin and deahtitslef was unravelled. Between human fallibility and limitations, we make decisions amid a sea of doubts and uncertainty. Economists may dream of full, free, and perfect information, but it does not exist in the real human world, especially our capacity to manage it, even if it were available.Spiritual discernment is all about seeking the will of god in a decision.It is difficult for me to see this command as being Will of God. I start with the premise that the will of God is  toward life and not death.Does it seem consonant with the god in and of Jesus Christ in its overall pattern? where does Scripture lead us on  the decision at hand. that is not as easy as it sounds, as scripture speaks in a variety of voices, so we are continuing a discussion with god that has now spanned millenia. we all do well to seek spiritual discernment for huge decisions such as the binding of Isaac or the seemingly smaller decision to give a cup of cold water as Jesus said.If one has a sense that the decision feels right into the future, that no nagging doubts remain, then that can be a good sign. if one  woudl be willing to go public with the decision instead of hiding it, then that cna be a good sign.

OT Notes aqedah, Genesis 22

Obviously this is a most difficult passage. At some level i get the idea that God would test the recipient of the promise with the loss of the sign of the promise, a young son. It is difficult for me to grasp why, other than an arbitrary test of power and obeisance that seems unsuited to the majesty of the Holy One. Yes, it could be a powerful appeal against child sacrifice. Yes, it can be read in league with the preceding story of the saving of Ishmael.

I wonder if it is also an account of Abraham putting God to the test in a divine human game of chicken. The same Abraham that tried to protect sodom is seeing how far god will go. When he says, God will provide, is he whistling in the dark or is it a virtual taunt thrown to heaven?

Robert Alter alerts us to the careful use of verbs here that serve to make the action agonizingly slow.

do you think Sarah knew of the planned sacrifice?

Elie Wiesel has some fine points in an essay in Messengers from God

What motivates god in this passage? Why?

week of June 22 devotional points

Sunday-Ps.86 appears today. It is a psalm that bears marks of a courtier who praises to gain a hearing. At the same time, it is a desperate prayer of need and longing. It wants more than divine presence,as it pleads for hte divine hand to change a situation. Our main reading for today was Hagar in Gen. 21, Surely this could be her prayer too, and for anyone in a depserate plight. When do you enegage is such prayer?

Monday-“"Prayer does not demand that we interrupt our work, but that we continue working as if it were a prayer." Mother Teresa (1910-1997)          

Tuesday-God not only loves me as I am, but also knows me as I am. Because of this I don't need to apply spiritual cosmetics to make myself presentable to Him. I can accept ownership of my poverty and powerlessness and neediness.”- Brennan Manning

Wednesday-Brother Lawrence in The Practice of the Presence of God, the classic little book of his letters, recommends you begin each outward action with "a little interior gaze." He also says to repeat this little interior gaze often during the task and again after completing the task. What is this little interior gaze? Call it mindfulness or attentiveness to the sacred presence in the most ordinary or intense work. I often repeat key lines of my poem below after presenting a retreat or teaching a class.-Kent Ira Groff

Thursday-Jesus leaves the disciples with a commission to go into the world, but promises to be with them through the end of the age. The letter to the church in Corinthians ends with instructions about conduct and behavior that will help that community follow Jesus in the absence of Paul's presence with them. The life of the Christian is full of endings and goodbyes. Yet the message of the Resurrection is that every ending, every goodbye, really ends with "till we meet ... till we meet at Jesus' feet." The promise of that meeting sustains and strengthens us through the variety of changes and farewells that occur in our lives.  Michelle Collins

Friday-We Christians really have no other claim to make than that we're forgiven sinners. So, it isn't surprising to find hypocrites among us, or, perhaps more accurately, to find hypocrisy in us, along with a lot of other sins. Hypocrisy is, after all, just another garden variety of sin, and a pretty puny, pallid, timid, sorry excuse for a sin it is. Lest we let ourselves off the hook too easily, we should take note of the stumbling block hypocrisy can be, keeping other people who may be drawn by God's Spirit at a distance simply because they don't want to associate with ... well ... us. Michael Jinkins

Saturday-God knows these boundaries better than we. And God knows the damage that is done when people apply the wrong principle to the wrong decision. Prayer is the common denominator in decisions that require transparency and decisions that require discretion. When I am honest with God, God will give me the wisdom to navigate my way through the gray area where transparency and discretion coexist. This gray area is the church. Dear God, give me the wisdom to know when to speak openly and when to remain silent, when to reveal and when to conceal, when to share and when to keep things to myself. Amen.Jeff Gross

Gen. 21 Hagar Sermon Notes and PCUSA

June 22, Gen. 21

I love Genesis because the family stories are so good. this one shows the immense capacity for our Jewish writers at self-criticism that points to human nature. A fundamental piece of belief was that israel gained identity being freed from slavery in Egypt. Here, the see of all jews, Abraham and Sarah, have an Egyptian slave. she is mistreated, and the word used is exactly the same one to describe the misery of the slavery in Egypt. Slavery hardens the heart of Sarah, just as it hardens the heart of the Egyptian ruler remember Sarah’s name means female ruler, princess or queen, or mistress).Slavery condemns the slave to a brutal life, but it infects the slo7ul of those who claim to own another as mere property.Hagar would be related to flight in Hebrew.

The issue of infertility and multiple wives also stalks this passage. Hagar has already been sent out into the desert to die, but God saves her with a miraculous water, just as water from the rock saved the freed people. Now Sarah has the miracle child of their old age. She cannot stand that Hagar’s son, the eldest, is playing with, laughing with, or making laugh,or teasing, or imitating young Isaac. She wants them both dead. This Scripture realizes that surrogacy causes issues in families. Multiple spouses cause issues Playing favorites is a problem. Adopting new methods for new situations is never easy.

do not be afraid-The word is for casting into a grave-he is already half dead..god hears the voice of the boy.Again the story has hope in a well and a wife., those combined elements in the ancient scenes.Weaning is a big step. In our time, some folks are extending the period of breast milk quite a while. Has her fear prevented her from seeing the well? Notice in htis early foundational story, god saves the Egyptian and her son.Already familie sof the earht are being touched through Abraham.So often we try to cast folks nto the outer darkness in our lives, maybe especially in divorce or in that cruel act of unfriending in Facebook.

Hagar cannot stand to see the child suffering and dying, cannot look into his eyes.God sees and hears and assesses the situation. How is this story linked to the terrible next story of the aqedah? In succession,  Abraham faces the death of his two sons.At least he is promised that Ishmael will beocme a great nation.

Hagar and Ishmael survive. when Abraham dies, the brothers meet up for the funeral. Their descendants still fight over the tomb of the patriarch and matriarch.

We call the church family. At our best, it welcomes others into the fold. At its worst, we import our family dysfunctions into its processes and attitudes. Once again we had our great family conference in Detroit for the past week or so. Again, some are delighted by some of the rulings and appalled by others. Far too often we announce a divorce or exile over a single issue and lose a sense of loyalty, of sticking within the tent. Even when a family is riven or is threatened by dissolution and exile, we are told to not be afraid. United in christ, animated by the spirit of life and unity,we continue to build a new future under that divine watchful, caring, eye.

Hagar and Family Conflict, including PCUSA

Some folks treat the Bible as a sacred object. They imagine that it has stories only of upright moral behavior and presents only exemplars of goodness. For those who actually read it, we find  how people struggle with foibles in the face of a God who will not let them go. Its opening book, Genesis, reads like an intergenerational saga of a dysfunctional family, doomed to repeat their mistakes.

Our Presbyterian church (USA) meets in General Assembly, our highest decision-making body, this week in Detroit. You may have heard that it has ruled that pastors may officiate in same-gender weddings where state law sanctions such a union.

Our church has been declining in members for years, for a variety of reasons, mostly as we seem unable to hold our children when they move into adulthood. . We may continue an exodus of disaffected folks as a result of this decision. We speak of the church as family. As a family, we seem to import some of our worst behaviors into our organization. At the same time, we do not mean the image.by and large, families coleasce around the notion that blood is thick, that a family seeks to stick together.

All Presbyterians hold the Bible dearly. The rubber hits the road on matters of interpretation. Obviously, the bible has a few passages against homosexaul activity.It also has passages on change, including the Acts struggle over full inclusion of Gentiles (non-Jews) into what was a developing Jewish sect at the time. The sad truth is that Christians will pick and choose biblical passages to buttress their argument, but we rarely try to allow Scripture to set the terms of ethical decision. Instead, we bring pre-existing ethical positions to the Scripture and read it through that lens.

Somewhere along the line, the church has developed a market orientation. If it does not provide the service I wish, then I exit its orbit. Loyalty to a family does not counteract this preference and choice notion. years ago, the church excommunicated people. Churches find themselves in the position where people excommunicate themselves. I cannot think of any organization with whom i could agree. I also dislike the ease with which we draw a line in the sand and decide that being a member of a group means that I can brook no disagreement on issues where I place some priority. I have struggled with some issues at our gatherings, regional and national, where I have been heartbroken or furious at a decision. To me, leaving means giving up my right to criticize or support, and certainly obviates my capacity to work within its system. Like most people, i resent feeling like an outsider, but I do not grasp making myself one over single issues.

I also admit my tendency to want to crawl into a hole, or lash out, when i lose, or even gloat when i win. I so admire the folks on social media who are quick to pray with and for those disappointed by a decision of the larger body. A spirit of reconciliation can certainly help the center to hold, even when centrifugal force seems so strong. Some years ago, i was a commissioner in Columbus Ohio in a General Assembly that felt the weight of dissolution most painfully. Our response was a small piece, Hope in the lord Jesus Christ. In the end, as Christians, our center relies on Jesus Christ, not shifting tides of opinion or modes of biblical interpretation, but on the lving spirit of the man from Galilee.As Scripture says, in him all the dividing walls of hispotuility are torn down (Ephesians). Unity does not require uniformity.

OT Notes Hagar-Gen. 21

I stand in awe at Israel's willingness to look at human nature. Slave sin Egypt, they have their patriarch be a slaveholder of Egyptians. In Egypt, their young were threatened, but Sarah does the same.I continue to like Gerald Janzen's psychologically astute small commentary, Abraham and all the Families of the Earth. 

Consider deeply the level of hatred of Sarah. What kind of person would try to kill Hagar and her child, twice.the word used to describe Sarah's treatment of Hagar is the same to describe Egyptian slavery after Joseph.Note well that the aqedah follows directly from this story.

Of course we get a bit of origin account here. Still, Arabs and Jews are shown to come from the same patriarch, so that President Carter could write a book on children of Abraham.This places familial rivalry at the heart of national politics.

this story is an invitation to do family systems work in a sermon or study as well. This could then extend to some of the good work done on church systems by say, Richardson. I find Friedman very hard to read. I also find systems stronger on diagnosis than on helping make the system healthier.

One could consider doing a more monologue style piece form Hagar ( an Egy;tian name, or possibly flight, in Hebrew) or Ishmael's pt. of view.Her needing to be far enough away to avoid looking into the yees of a dying son is high narrative art.

Sarah sees Ishmael laughing at, with, or making Isaac laugh. it is a play on his name, laughter, but could be read in a variety of ways. In a similar way god hears the cry and Ishmael's name may well have reference to being heard by God.

Again, we get the great phrase do not be afraid.

devotional Points for Week of June 15

Sunday-Ps 8 hits the creation theme hard on Trinity sunday.What doe sit mean to you to frame this psalm with the word, majestic. How does it describe God, especially for worship? How do scientific images fit with majesty in your view in our time? Consider with car verses 4 and 5. what doe sit mean to be a little lower than divinity? How should tha tredound to our care of others?

Monday-Ponder the rhythms of your life: times when you've received life's good gifts (creation).... times when life has emptied you of illusions (crucifixion).... then notice connections of those experiences to your unique ways of giving back (mission)... I call this "the trinity of experience," beyond theological doctrine, now as existential movements in your lived life. (Kent Ira Groff)

Tuesday-“Because the Christian God is not a lonely God, but rather a communion of three persons, faith leads human beings into the divine communion. One cannot, however, have a self-enclosed communion with the Triune God- a "foursome," as it were-- for the Christian God is not a private deity. Communion with this God is at once also communion with those others who have entrusted themselves in faith to the same God. Hence one and the same act of faith places a person into a new relationship both with God and with all others who stand in communion with God.” ― Miroslav Volf

Wednesday-What are the prayers on your heart as we pass across the threshold into summer (or winter for our southern hemisphere monks)? What is it the season for in your own being? ( Abbey of the Arts)

Thursday-We live in a glorious and good universe in which everything fits together.  Note the Genesis author does not say “perfect.”  Creation is not finished, it is in process, emerging, and – dare we say – evolving (and the Genesis order of creation comes close to evolutionary theory) as each aspect seeks its proper place within the whole.  Humankind is part of this wonderful and dynamic divine tapestry: we are earthy, yet created in God’s image, male and female, to be partners and stewards in creation.  There is no literal “special creation” of the human species, as come biblical literalists assert against evolutionary theory; there is wise creation and interdependence, in which humanity has a special role. Bruce Epperly

Friday-We worked on notions of happiness in Wednesday class. We were reminded of a greek distinction between transient pleasures and a life worht living. the psychologist Seligman speaks of elements of happiness, pleasures, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievements. Rank order elements of happiness along both scales in your life.

Saturday-"Courage is a crucial virtue, for once again the currents of history are churning into rapids, threatening to carry before them everything we have loved, trusted, looked to for pleasure and support. We are being called upon to live with enormous insecurity...Will we be scared to death or scared to life? It all depends on where we find our ultimate security.  (William Sloane Coffin)

Sermon Notes for Trinity Sunday 14-

Trinity Sunday 6/15 Gen. 1, Ps. 8, 2 Cor 13:11-13

I realize that many folks dread this Sunday as it is the one time pastors often try to lay out some serious theology. If anything, Presbyterians are a thinking person’s church, at least at its best. we do ourselves no favors in trying to divorce the mind from the heart in matters of religious faith.

I see that we are reaching an agreement for mutual recognition of baptism,as long as we use the trinitarian name between Reformed bodies and the Roman Catholic Church. the Trinitarian understanding can be glue or foundation when other differences are highlighted.

Here goes. Jettison the 3 persons notion as some sort of mystical arithmetic. Think of it more as three ways we engage the divine.Christians rather struggle with a basic Biblical issue how do we speak of God as one and yet we have aspects of God interacting in the Bible. A  key issue for Christians is how to speak of the divinity of Jesus when Jesus prays to God? How can we speak and consider Jesus and divinity today, perhaps especially when we encounter other faiths? Scriptural passages push us into honoring the first commandment and the nature of Jesus and the Spirit.If placed in a different way, the trinity is a constant course correction fo rus. We cannot speak of God solely as Creator, without including the divine work of salvation and sustaining that same creation. God’s work is interrelated, a triple helix that winds around life and live.

It has been said that Presbyterians worship a big God, a God worthy of full adoration and reverence that is due God, not some projection of human desires on to a heavenly screen.As you can tell, i am bascially a musical philistine, stuck in the music of my youth, but I have learned a tiny bit about some classicla material. one of the reasons I so admire the music in this church is that the organ appeals to the majesty of god as opposed to the tiny sounds of an acoustic guitar strumming three chords. Christians worship then a big complex God. If the Trinity seeks to place limitations on God from out side, then it fails. God always explodes our best doctrines. At the same time, it does no one any favors to prattle about a mystery as if that should end inquiry and wonder.

God is consistent with what God does  God’s nature and actions are of a piece and are inter-related.At the same time, we need to be careful that we are trying to express what cannot be expressed, to define the One who is undefinable.   

We neglect the Spirit often, in part, as that element of God does not so easily fit with a picture of the Father and the Son. Our minds create images often to think. Its very presence through time and space, its surprising character may well fit our time better than the Sunday School picrtures that fill our imaginations.So i will work a bit with elements of Spirit of God.The Spirit is present at the birth of creation and the birth of the church.

Let me come at it another way. I John tells us God is love. We can speak of the trinity aws aspects of love. It is not a perfect analogy but I use the same word, love for parents, spouse, and children, but they are certainly different, no? In its way the Trinity is a way of saying Christians encounter God or better God encounters and engages us in three patterns.of love.Name a superlative and attach the name of Trinity to love, or goodness, or kinness, and we touch just a slender fragment of the God to who is to reciev eour worship.

Draft of Father's Day column

My father was a seafarer. My father died in 1957 in a shipping explosion. Even though I have grown old, I was still too young to have na memory of him.Father’s day was a different day in our house. Our mother grew more depressed than usual.

We did not get to hear many stories about our father as we grew up. So we created an image of him made of a few photos, a few stories, and scraps of information. I suppose folks did not want to wade into touchy territory, so he was a mystery to my brother and me in many ways.

My view of fathers then had a bit of objectivity as an observer. Fathers struck me as more distant figures, and their children craved attention from them.I felt sorry for them as they were the big disciplinarians, as soon as they trudged home from work. So many of the men in Western pennsylvania were afflicted with black lung or a other occupational ailments, so they were not able to play with their children as they would have liked. So many of them virtually lived in bars that the wisdom they tried to dispense was often too leavened with alcohol’s obstacles to thought. By and large, they offered so much time and energy in working for their families that they had little energy to extend beyond that, so that they felt as observers in their own households often. Fathers seemed caught in children following in their footsteps, but in raising independent young people on the road to “make and get something for yourselves better and easier.”

I was around his age when we had our first child and then lived to see another child born.     One of the few good things I did as a parent was to really try to note and revel in milestones of our children’s development, as I realized that my father did not live to see many of them.Contemporary fathers have high expectations of their more involved role in child rearing, but we have yet to come up with anything near a consensus of how that should be accomplished, even with respect to  handling household chores.

It seems to me that my baby boom generation froze to some degree at least, in being teenagers struggling to come to grips with differentiating from our parents,perhaps especially fathers. We continue to refuse to buy products if they remind us our parents. Now grandparents ourselves, we lack the internal insight to even notice the contradiction in roles.

On Father's Day, I like to puzzle over Jesus and Joseph and God. I like to think that Jesus had a warm relationship with Joseph, within its cultural confines. some of the Jesus movies depict well just such a relationship.On the other hand, i had a professor who speculated that Jesus waited to begin his public ministry until joseph had left the scene.  In our time, we have grown skittish of the gospel of John’s reference to god as Father by jesus. In part, that is due to a concern that such an emphasis becomes literal and creates a male image of God, the spirit, for many of us.

This year, Father's Day falls on Trinity Sunday. This great doctrine reminds us of the ineffability of the complex God whom we are all called to reverence. God is certainly greater than a projection of human fathers. We could even imagine God’s fatherly activity as being far beyond any earthly model of failure or greatness. At the same time, that majestic God hands over the creation of families to mere human beings, fallible as we are. God entrusts the dear creation and maintenance of human life to us. May we continue to attempt to be true to that immense trust.

Father's Day Prayer 2014

Today in Psalm 8 we hear that

we are made a little lower than the angels

Fathers help with the work of God.

May every father aspire to that  high calling,

be it biological, adoptive, or blended family.

We call God Father as did Jesus.

We don't know how Jesus and Joseph related.

Could the depth of Jesus’s relationship with the God

whom he called Father be related to his

love and devotion to the man who raised him?

No human father is perfect

All human fathers make mistakes

We may have an uneasy relationship

Looking back, we may have not treated our own fathers well.

The guides are less clear for fathers

Forgiveness applies to parents too.

Those of us who are parents

may do well to seek forgiveness.

In Proverbs we read that

“My child, if your soul is wise

my heart shall be glad.”

May we hear echoes of a father

telling us, that they are proud of us.

May our minds wander in time

may we recapture some sense of our fathers

May our senses be a good guide.

It may be  a touch, a sound, a scent.

Often memory is stirred by activity.

“Let’s have a catch” becomes sacramental.

“Let’s go for a drive” is an

invitation to adventure.

In an uncertain world, all fatherhood

is a journey into uncharted territory.

Thank you, dear God, Father God,

that you guide and accompany us,

we do not journey on our onw.

Pentecost 2014 Num. 11

June 8 Pentecost-Numbers 11 Acts 2

The Spirit empowers, but that very virtue can be a vice when seen from the point of view from     the way things are. Moses is so secure in his relationship with God and his leadership that he does not deter the spirit on Medad(affectionate, water of love, measuring) and Eldad (one whom God loves). His is a democratic spirit.Moses can share the spirit that has his very face shone.After all the Spirit rest on all of the disciples when they are in one place together.

Moses is not bound by the way things have been. tension always exist\s in the church between settled order and pushing the envelope. Indeed sometimes our rules, rituals, and SOP can become idolatrous.At the same time, i am firmly convinced that the Spirit is also a spirit of order and procedures and can live comfortably within a frame.The Spirit is also capable of blowing the doors off procedure and expectations.Unpredictable, pattern breaking expectation confounding fits the Spirit too.Yes, the Spirit comes in a rush of wind, but it also works with infinite patience on us day by day, so it can be immediate or gradual in its effects.

Jurgen Moltmann gives us such a valuable corrective when he speaks of the church itself as a charismatic community that receives the gifts of the spirit for its corporate mission. The church is the place for faith to find connection.We do well to live in the tension between fire and form, of flexibility and strictures. While I am pleased that some folks receive certain pentecostal elements in their life, we cannot permit those to become the goals or certain signs of the spirit. First. we look to the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit that we always mention in baptism. Second.,, our tradition emphasizes that the spirit is not to be locked into any particular form of action, but i is the Spirits not our evaluation of the individual emotive content. After all, the Pentecost story does introduce speaking in tongues but its force is more toward the understanding of speech without translation in the sermon that follows, not the tongues themselves..

Pentecost shows us that God wishes to share the Spirit to enact and embody the life and message of jesus in our time and place.With our great kitchen, we are able to host a dedicated group who feeds people on tuesdays. Susie’s organizational skills and attention to detail and food allows us to host and sponsor feeding on Saturday. the spirit’s gifts lie in cooking, cleaning, organizing, and fundraising too.Some say they find the spirit only in the spirit of beneficence they find within themselves when they help others out. I need the Spirit’s power to look past the risk of the few who take advantage of programs. I pray for the spirit of healing and deliverance to touch the hearts and minds and spirits of so many whom we serve who are mentally ill.

Instead, it is seen spiritually in the form of spiritual light, and comes with all calm and joy."Guide to Byzantine Iconography, Vol. 1, by Constantine Cavarnos  Gregory-This illumination is radiance of souls, transformation of life, engagement of the conscience toward God. Illumination is help for our weakness, illumination is ... communion in the Word, setting right... participation in light, dissolution of darkness. Illumination is a vehicle leading toward God, departure with Christ, support of faith, perfection of mind, key to the kingdom of heaven, change of life,...release from bonds, transformation of our composite nature. Illumination—what more need I add?—is the most beautiful and most magnificent of the gifts of God. (40.3)

Devotional Thoughts Week of June 8

Sunday- Ps. 104 is a great creation psalm, and its mention of the spirit.breath of life probably accounts for its inclusion in a Pentecost reading.Pentecost is a democratic holiday where the celebration of the breadth of the Spirit’s breath is manifest. here., the breath of life extends to all living things.

Monday-"May the Lord grant you power; not the power of fisted might or of cold steel, but of the Living Seed--planted in the earth and reaching upwards toward Infinite Light.

May the Lord grant you poise; not that of the sheltered tree but of the OAK --deep rooted, storm-strengthened, and free. May the Lord grant you peace; not the peace of the stagnant pool but of the deep-flowing waters." -Robert McNaul

Tuesday-”I thought such dark and awful thoughts that they would tempt Jesus to want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.” Anne Lamott. Yes it is put quite boldly, but few writers are willing to openly examine their dark impulses more than this writer who found herself after stumbling into a local Presbyterian church. What are some soul illnesses that you  have trouble facing, let alone admit in public?

Wednesday…”make them in my mind, less than human. Ah I feel better now, but god cries. How many times did the angels and Jesus say do not be afraid (hint, a lot) why don't we listen?” Steve Kiewer…When do fear and anxiety conspire together in us to dismiss a person or a whole group of people. What group are you most likely to dismiss, but then catch yourself?

Thursday-"The better part of valor is discretion.?Falstaff on how he has managed to save his own life by pretending to be dead. Act 5, scene 4, line 119. the forest Park Shakespeare festival is showing Henry IV and henry V for a while. Many consider Falstaff to be one of Shakespeare's most inspired character creations. What character touched you when you were young and impressionable, especially as you sailed into adulthood?

Friday-”Only God could say what this new spirit/gradually forming within you will be./...accept the anxiety of/feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete”Above all, trust in the slow work of God…

.(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin) De Chardin had his issues with the Roman Church, but he continues to exert a mystical pull on many who read him or encounter one of his arresting quotes.Where have you seen the surprising slow work of God in your experience?

Saturday-“Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God's new Temple. They are, individually and corporately, places where heaven and earth meet.” --“For Christians it's always a love game ... that He is love itself ... Indeed, some have suggested that one way of understanding the Spirit is to see the Spirit as the personal love which the Father has for the Son and the Son for the Father.” ― N.T. Wright, Simply Christian:

General Assembly thoughts

The Presbyterian Church has its General Assembly. As usual, we have some contentious issues, the definition of marriage, and the push to divest from a few companies whose products aid Israel’s policies in the west Bank. I am mulling over some cautionary points on such matters.

I taught government and politics for a while. I find church discussions dispiriting often. We speak to each other in ways that politicians rarely do. We pick up some of the worst behaviors form social media postings and trot them out in gatherings routinely.

Humility tops my list. I am concerned with the claim of expertise made by many when they have read a book or two on an issue. While I am delighted they have read; should we not cite our sources and notice also their sometimes unbalanced point of view from either the left or right? Can we casually dismiss expertise when we disagree with its findings?

Second, I hope we can speak for ourselves and our point of view without claiming to represent others. Further, we tend to try to ascribe motives and policy positions to others with whom we disagree when we do not have a basis for trying to tell them about their stance. It seems important to try to grasp another point of view, its assumption, its view of ends and means, the risks it is willing to take from the inside as much as possible. Civil discourse does not mean agreeing with what others say. it does not mean being silent on one’s perspective.

Third, religious ethical arguments tend to move toward a rule-based view of ethics as an attempt to be determinative. We can do better and use other ethical models to help us through the thickets of argument.

Fourth, religious ethical arguments tend to reduce complexity in a fallen world, and instead move toward polarities rather quickly. They then slide into a view that one point of view demonstrates both orthodoxy and orthopraxis, while contending views are pushed aside.

OT Notes Num. 11:24-30

I am glad that the lectionary returns to OT readings as part of regular worship.On Pentecost, we naturally have a reading on the Spirit.As usual, i will try to note some possible angles for a sermon, Bible study, or spiritual development
1) We are in the midst of a leadership crisis. Moses feels overwhelmed and is not seeing growth in the people. God moves to a less centralized system and 70 elders  share in the spirit of Moses. They will receive some of the spirit that was in Moses and now share the burdens of leadership. I wonder if that meant that Moses was somehow weakened. Would others see him as weakened now. Is this not a different way of approaching the story in Exodus of Jethro advising Moses to delegate power and organize it more democratically?

2) One wonders why the spirit of prophesy came but once to them?

3) Eldad and Medad do not follow the prescribed method, but they receive the spirit nonetheless. They are not punished. Some later tradition thought they their words in the camp predicted upcoming crises for Israel.
Eldad could  mean God (El)  has loved and Medad means loved one or friend. Another way could be linking God to family and place, or it may relate to the storm god, Hadad.

4) Moses seems to me to be so secure that he doesn't see this as a threat by any means.On the other hand Joshua sees trouble in this newly distributed power.

5) Moltmann does a good job on the spirit of life giving the church power to do its tasks. We need to be careful not to permit others to limit the work of hte spirit to individual charisms.