Notes on Joshua 3

Joshua shares a name with Jesus. God save/helps/delivers. The Promised land itself is a an image redolent for All Saints Day as well.I don;t know if I would even consider using this book if it did not get featured in the RCL.I know that i have not gone through a commentary with care on the entire book, just bits and pieces.We can follow from last week and see how the successor, joshua, does waht Moses cannot, to go into the Promised Land. One could go through some of the citations on the river Jordan and its importance as a water source now.

1) This famous passage is not a military conquest is it? It is a liturgical procession that  fells a city.(I also encourage the archaeologically minded to look at the succession of sites that Jericho occupied over the centuries.Entry signs are important to what follows.

2) the river Jordan is an invitation to look at boundaries in our lives. It could speak of liminal space, the space between one area and another.

3) The presence of God is a vital piece here and can be explored in our time. when do we need the presence of God and when do we shun it?

4) One should note the links to the story fo the crossing of the Sea in Exodus.for instance, the word heap occurs there too.

5) Look at the actions of the priests, both leading and being in the midst of the water.Too oftne, Christian interpreters fall into stereotypes of religious ritualism instead of ritual.

Sermon Notes on Death of Moses DT. 34

Moses is presented as the exemplar of love o God and neighbor, his people.Dt. 34 and the death of Moses-plus and minus in loving god and neighbor. I have always felt sorry for Moses that he is unable to enter the Promised Land. some think that Israel needed to break free of Moses    He is pr portrayed as vital to the end. It encourages us to perhaps look back at our own lives and toward the vision of the Promised Land. some think it was an incident at Meribah where Moses perhaps overstepped his role. some think it is an anticipation of Jesus as a suffering servant who is not permitted to enter the Promised land any more than the vast majority of the exodus generation.

At 60, I have been declared officially harmless. i am intrigued that Moses is portrayed as  being vigorous well into the extreme old age Maybe it reflects 2 lives, as an Egyptian added to his normal life span as a Hebrew.This congregation may be graying, but it does have at least some of the vigor of youth.

Does anyone die having checked off their bucket list? Does anyone die with all of the hopes realized? Life always feels unfinished. We all have wishes undone and tasks unfinished.Those can be personal ones or for causes with whom and for whom we may labor, communities that have embraced us and those we have embraced.

Even though Moses will not set foot in the Promised Land, he is given a satellite image view of the Promised Land. I like to think that maybe he saw history unfold Vision of the future propels us forward at times. If we work toward a vision, work on a dream of a different future, it enlarges and engages our perspective. Moses receives a God’s eye view of the future, an expansive one.What vision do you have for this special place for the future? Yes, we are a graying church group, but maybe we are grandparents preparing to visit the maternity ward of a new day.We live within a legacy here in this place. Is it, will it be a living legacy, to quote Peopria’s Dan fogelberg (cncert in his honor over the weekend there).What faithful legacy shall we leave in our time here?

God buries Moses. So it cannot beocme a shrine, a memorial to the past, his burial place is secret.No shrine will be given for Moses. His memory will be enshrined in Israel. I sometimes think that a fine gift to our families is to do some pre-planning for the disposition of our bodies and the plans for our funerals. In Africa, ebola is being spread through the final act of love an dkindness we offer a loved, the care and disposition of the body. Here God gives Moses the last rites and buries him secretly, an ironic resting place for a public man.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated. He addressed the crowd in Memphis:”Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people will get to the promised land.”

Column draft on Reformation sunday

When I was a child, we had a good deal of antipathy between Protestants and Catholics. That is too mild. Religious prejudice and bigotry were practiced frequently. “Mixed” marriages were frowned upon. The nuns in school told me to walk on the other side of the street of Protestant churches. JFK’s faith was such an issue that Rev. Positive Thinking Norman Vincent Peale pronounced the end of the American democracy. Protestant clergy routinely inveighed against the Pope.

Religious prejudice is much less than it once was. We have come such a long way. In some measure it comes from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 enshrining no discrimination on the basis of creed. Politicians continue to trip over themselves to ask God’s blessings, but they rarely invoke a particular religious option. Since Vatican II the relations are much more sanguine between Catholics and Protestants. My Facebook feed routinely has praise for the Pope among Protestant clergy. The American profusion of religious opinion continues, not only in Christian circles, but in other faiths, or in those who are antagonistic or indifferent to matter religious.

That good will gets threatened on Sunday, called Reformation Sunday, in many Protestant communities. Folks will be treated to a round of self-congratulatory rhetoric about the Protestant (proclaiming) version of the faith. We approach the 500^th anniversary of Luther writing a scholarly disputation against the practice of indulgences from purgatory. (Purgatory, as the name suggestions, is an afterlife station of cleansing or purification before entrance into heaven.) He wanted to debate some doctrine and practice. Luther may have posted his disputation on a church door or wrote them up in a protest letter. This is considered the first action of the conflict that would split the Church in Europe. Pulpit after pulpit will be filled with stereotypes and ill-considered illustrations that we would accept in no other circumstance.

Major doctrinal disputes are long since past on the issue of salvation for both groups. As NT Wright says, we continue to ask 16^th century questions about the Bible. We may fly an occasional banner about the old issues, but they lack any semblance of pertinence.

The gospel reading in many churches that follow a lectionary cycle of readings is telling this week. The passage gives us Jesus at his most basic. We are to love God and neighbor (Mt. 22:34-46). Part of me hangs my head in shame that we proliferate so many different versions of that core message. On the other hand, if such a variety o of the garden of grace gives a place for someone to find their place, so be it. It opens a door; it does not serve as an obstacle to loving God and neighbor. Simple phrases can contain a world of meaning, and I suspect so it is with the Great Commandment. Further, Jesus holds them together as the summary of the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. If we try to separate them and pit love of god against love of each other, then we run afoul of our founding principle.

The Reformed tradition of which I am a part has as a basic motto, the church reformed, always being reformed. Notice the passive voice there. God’s spirit is the hidden element providing the energy and direction for the reforming. Change in itself is not reformation. The core of its structure and tenets remain the same, but it is adapting to new circumstances.

We have opportunities to celebrate Christian unity. Reformation Sunday is a way to look at the fragmentation of the Christian message in America with open eyes. It can be a way to look at what divisions are lost in the mist of history. It can also be a call to examine our horizon and see how far we all have to go.

Week of Oct 26 thoughts

Sunday-Ps. 90 is one of the great psalms of penance. I rarely have this much remorse or contrition in me that is evidenced in this great prayer. Few of us have a sense of sin as an affront to God, or consider the “wrath” of god.. Note that it starts the fourth book of the edited Psalter, so it may well be answering the pleas of people facing the destruction of Jerusalem, including the temple.

Monday-(Idea from Kent Groff) Praying the news past ignoring it or getting depressed.I have not watche dht enews before going to bed for most of my adult life. Its parade of horrors cuts and cuts deeply. Sometimes when I see a miracle like the Berlin Wall falling without violence, I wonder if prayer was the force that brought it down.

Tuesday-O Gracious and Abiding Presence,We prepare now to let go our control of this day as we hand over to you the fruits of our labors. Soon sleep will close our eyes and empty our hands and minds of work. Each time this happens we practice our departure into death. May the sacrament of sleep teach us not to fear death but to trust in your compassionate care for it is, in you, that we sleep and take our rest. Lord of Day and Night, of Life and Death, into your hands we entrust our lives. In Christ's name we pray…

Wednesday-I am getting ready for John 2:13 as we go through the Gospel of John in the 9:30 bible Class. Here is  a parade example of John’s gospel being out of sync with the other gospels, as Jesus has his symbolic demonstration in the start of his mission, not the conclusion.

Thursday-From Abbey of the Arts-The darkness embraces everything, / It lets me imagine  / a great presence stirring beside me. / I believe in the night.  ---Rainer Maria Rilke in Book of Hours-The Christian feasts of All Saints and All Souls on November 1st and 2nd honor the profound legacy of wisdom our ancestors have left to us and continue to offer. In some denominations, we celebrate and honor the dead for the whole month of November. In the Northern hemisphere the world is entering the dark half of the year. The ancient Celtic people believed this time was a thin space, where heaven and earth whispered to one another across a luminous veil and those who walked before us are especially accessible in these late autumn days. These moments on the great turning of the year’s wheel offer us invitations and gifts for our spiritual journeys.

Friday-God needs to catch us by surprise because our very limited pre existing notions keep us and our understanding of God small. We are still trying to remain in control and we still want to “look good”! God tries to bring us into a bigger world where by definition we are not in control and no longer need to look good. A terrible lust for certitude and social order has characterized the last 500 years of Western Christianity, and it has simply not served the soul well at all. Once we lost a spirituality of darkness as its own kind of light, there just wasn’t much room for growth in faith, hope, and love. (Richard Rohr)

Saturday-Anytime you can walk in another persons shoes, the world is a slightly better place. ~ (Anthony Bourdain) Empathy goes beyond sympathy as we do attempt to see the world from another’s point of view/.It is perhaps our greatest act of imagination, to encounter another.

OT Notes Dt. 34

I always go back to Dennis Olson’s fine Book Dt. and the Death of Moses. I find it tragic that he does not get to go into the the Promised Land. At least he gets a vision. As I turned 60, I am delighted that he is pictured as hale and hearty to the end of his days. By the time of Jesus it was a legend that since he had no burial place, maybe he was assumed into heaven.; that may be one reason why he is pictured with Elijah (of the chariot to heaven) in the Transfiguration.The cloud of the Ascension of Jesus is matched by a lcoud taking Moses into heaven in some rabbinical works.

1. Why was it important to prevent a shrine to Moses? How is Torah a  shrine for him?
2. Patrick Miller in his 25 year old commentary sees Moses as a suffering servant. What other links to Christ can you find?
3. 3) Did Moses die a good death? I often think of King’s closing vision in her last speech in Memphis.
4. The death of Moses could be a promt for us to consider our own deaths.
5. 5) I like to think that the vision of Moses of the entirety of the Promised Land included a vision of the future as well.
6. 6) God buries Moses. What a remarkable act of care. This could be a wedge into considering our current burial practices.
7. 7) Go through some death scenes in literature and movies.

Sermon Notes Oct. 19 I Thes. 1:1-10 Thanking

Oct 19 I Thes. 1:1-10-     

Forgive me if I told this story before. Fred Rogers, ordained presbyterian minister to be misterrogers spoke at the emmy awards for a lifetime achievement award. He asked the bejeweled crowd to stop for a moment in silence to think of someone important in their lives. He then stopped and told them he would watch the time.Everyone of us has people who have loved us into being, who have cared for us, who helped make us who we are. how pleased they must be to see who you have become.such smiles greeted him and a warm standing ovation with more than a few tears.tim Robbins seemed to struggle with his composure in presenting the award/ Before we do the same thing during prayer. Take fifteen seconds and consider someone who helped make you the person you are today.

Again Esquire magazine asked a variety of people to mention someone who made them who they became. One of them was Kenny Rogers who was here recently for a concert. He spoke of his father’s drinking but he spoke of a man who played in a jazz group who saw potential in him and told him that show business was not all wet towels and naked women, that it was a business and would eat you alive if your did not approach it as such.

Paul does a similar thing here; he thanks God for them. I was struck by how many people

I suppose I should not single people out as that can cause people to feel left out, so this is a corporate prayer of thanks.

Grace and gratitude have been said to be hallmark religious values. Gratitude opens up the self.Paul makes is teaching a way of life here. gratitude, thanksgiving do not come naturally to us. I myself have used the Psalms as a template to teach me how to pray gratitude, to pray with thanksgiving. this is a prayer after all. i give thanks to God for you. I don;t have any problem with people such as Oprah touting the benefits of gratitude. Christians can appropriate it as well. what we cannot give up is the direction of gratitude toward God, god the source of all creation Of course, it could also be a salutary spiritual exercise to go over what we are not grateful for as well. when I get bombarded with email requests I am not particularly grateful to that modern miracle.When rain and snow interfere with directV and i am watching a game, i am not grateful. Nothing attacks gratitude as a feeling of being oed, entitled, deserving something.

Gratitude is a virtue as it opens up the mind and heart toward a broader perspective. it moves us to see the gifts given that we may have not noticed. It may even allow us to see something that was bad or unfortunate into a new light with time and a considered response

I thank God for this space.

i thank God for the people who made this space possible.I thank god for music that  drives the creative arts into the very heart of worship, the core reason for church. i thank god for the foresight to have a good insurance policy. I thank God for the people who work with the Scripture diligently, penly, carefully, week after week. I thank god for people who allow me to enter a home or hospital room r lunch counter to pay with and for them.

I thank God for people who bring communion to folks, who work in the kitchen on the second Saturday of the month, who make food for the mercy lunches.

On turning 60

I turned sixty recently. Our daughters have always teased me about being old, and they did not disappoint this year. Our youngest brought out the word, primordial, as in the primeval ooze of creation, and our eldest went with a more religious theme and selected antediluvian.they described in detail that it was difficult to believe that I was really that age, so they did the math, but that required a larger mainframe computer to handle  a number of that size.

A number of people have referred to sixty as the age of becoming harmless, or even when I donated blood, officially harmless. A ten year old told me not to be too reckless not that I was harmless. Another child told me that old people talk about the old days too much, and they complain too much. I had to merely nod in agreement.

Facing age is of particular import for baby boomers. We revelled in being young. we had slogans, such as don’t trust anyone of over thirty. Even when we became parents, we were determined not to be like our parents, so we have SUVs instead of station wagons. At some point, men go through the agonizing realization that they have become invisible to younger women. At 60, I am visible again, but now I am perceived as a grandfatherly  specter.

We associate age with wisdom. The magic there is experience and reflection.  Otherwise we continue to  go in circles without noticing any benefit or dangers.It seems to me that people face age in character often. Bitter people grow more bitter with the years. Age doesn't seem to cure stupidity on its own.

One of the  issues we face in society is that we do not give nearly the space for those elderly people  who are wise to share their wisdom. Yes, we have some like the SCORE program to mentor fledgling businesses.  If we judge the elderly to be harmless only, we automatically judge their viewpoints as lesser than those of youth.

My father died before I was three. I am the only survivor of our small immediate family circle. I’ve had prostate cancer, so 60 feels like a gift. To help me keep perspective when our girls were growing up, I would remind myself that he never lived to see the chapter turning moments of learning to read, to ride a bike, to drive a car, to graduate.

At the same time, i am mystified by those who romanticize age. I do not physical and mental decline. Even though I walked our hills to get ready for a hiking trip recently, the altitude left me breathless when climbing hills. I  like to participate in trivia contests for fundraisers, and was a lot better at it when I was 45. My image is that my memories are in a file cabinet, but the identifying tabs are gone, so I have to rifle through all of the files to try to capture an answer. My dreams seem to be drifting more into the past. My choir voice is helped by the amazing array of noises I utter when getting out of a chair.

Jesus did not have the opportunity to grow old. The Bible is realistic about age. Ps. 71 is obviously written from the perspective of someone growing into the ranks of the elderly. It speaks of strength being spent. Ecclesiastes does not think that the big answers to big questions ever occurs, but it does commend enjoying things within our purview fully.Death does not hold much fear for me. i do fear the possibility of mental decline and physical pain, but I do realize that help is available for both of those maladies, if they strike.

Columbus Day Column

When I was a child, the public school children received a day off on Columbus Day, but we Catholic school children trudged in for another day of school. Since I attended Catholic school years ago, we received a decidedly Catholic-centric view of history, including American history.

Of course, we learned of the three small ships, and the subsequent voyages to the Americas. We also learned that Columbus saw himself as an emissary for God. Priests accompanied him on at least some of the voyages, and one priest lived with the native people for some time. We downplayed the cruel treatment and enslavement of the natives encountered.

What I did not know until much later was the fascination of Columbus with end-time speculation. He collected a series of biblical images for the end of the ages. Since he thought the end would be presaged by a conversion of the world to the faith (this was a generation before the Reformation), Columbus saw himself as a player in the great divine drama of history. Toward the end of his life, he wrote that he helped bring to light Isaiah’s new heaven and new earth that was quoted in the book of Revelation (the Apocalypse, Greek for Revelation, in Catholic circles).

In our time, end time speculation tends to be much more   circumscribed. Those who read the bible as a collection of predictions tend to hold to a doctrine that they will be sported away from the troubles of life, as in the remake of execrable Left Behind film. Instead, Columbus was driven by his vision of the end times into the world, not away from it. Four times Columbus journeyed to lands unknown to Europeans, and helped open a new chapter in our planet’s life.

A vision of the future can and does affect our view of the present. If one sees a point of view as being on the right side of history, then energy and willingness to risk become open. When Martin Luther Kings spoke of the arc of the universe bending toward justice, his view of god’s future animated that statement.

Not long ago, I wrote in these pages of the exploration of the moon, and if we could imagine such a project today. Soon, we will be electing officials across a range of important offices. George bush never did grasp what he termed “the vision thing.” Part of political life is projecting a view of the future. Right now, we hear of small steps, half-measures. Some on the radical right have a vision, but a backward-looking one, of a world that never existed but in the imagination, of a simpler time.

I would love to see a day dedicated to an explorer of scientific or technical frontiers. I would love for us to honor those who made the internet, or MRIs, or Crestor. In our lifetime, we have explored elements of the atom unknown to anyone before.

While we have glimpsed the beginning of the universe with the Hubble telescope, I would also love for us to continue to pursue the journey within the human mind and personality. From where does virtue arise? Why does evil come to us so easily? Why do we resort to violence so easily? Will we be able to predict markers of the transformation of consciousness and awareness? In the midst of exploring the world around us, how much progress have we made in exploring the world within? At its best, therapy is a Columbus-like set of voyages to the unknown reaches of our own psyche. The religious quest is seeing oneself in line with the beyond of our experience and seeking to glimpse the way forward.

OT Notes Ex. 33

I have not worked on this passage very much. It deserves some attention.

     1) I tend to read the glory of God as the presence of God. I take the long held view that we do not see god and live as a sign of finitude in the orbit of infinity. God does acquiesce to the request of Moses as far as God is willing, or perhaps what Moses could endure. I am fascinated by the goodness passing over Moses. I wonder how much of the presence of god one could handle, even in heaven, especially paul’s move from a mirror dimly to face to face.

2. The awe-inspiring god is one of forgiveness, even after the replication of the Fall with the Golden Calf episode.
3. v. 19 is a wonderful set of divine promises that match up nicely with the next chapter on the attributes of God.
4. Here is a parade example for the boldness of prayer. this time Moses does not bring in much on the reputation of God, but is in the ballpark with the talk of distinguishing the people who are allied with the presence of God. The presence of god constitutes this people and the leadership of Moses.
5. do you speculate on what it would be like to be in the goodness of God?
6. I detect a note of real tenderness when God has Moses hide to be even part of the the glory/goodness.

Week of oct. 12 spiriutal thoughts

Sunday-Ps 106 recalls the Golden Calf episode. It blends into , perhaps, the struggle with holding on to the faith, in the midst of other religious beliefs and practices. Our reformed tradition maintains, at least partially, a concern for trying to make a standard image of god, and it certainly sees any substitute for God as the path toward idolatry. What Is your understanding of that fundamental sin?

Monday-Phil 4-the Lord is near-does this mean time or in proximity? Perhaps, it means both? Look at how Paul tells us to live in light of the proximity of god. What image of God seems to undergird his advice? What are the higher, noble, excellent people, places, things, and ideas toward which you aspire?

Tuesday- Brian Wren-When all is ended, time and troubles past,shall all be mended, sin and death out-cast?In hope we sing, and hope to sing at last:Alleluia!- As in the night, when lightning flickers free,-and gives a glimpse of distant hill and tree, each flash of good discloses what will be:-Alleluia!--Against all hope, our weary times have known-wars ended, peace declared, compassion shown,great days of freedom, tyrants overthrown:-Alleluia!-Then do not cheat the poor, who long for bread,with dream-worlds in the sky or in the head,but sing of slaves set free, and children fed:Alleluia!

Wednesday-We may need to listen deeply to hear (Bible verses) anew. Sometimes reading different translations helps spark the imagination, or even just reading the words slowly and intentionally can prove to be inspiring. Additionally, looking at art inspired by the psalm can bring deeper insight. Lord, be our comfort and our guide through this life and into the next. May we take comfort in your Word and rest in your peace. Amen.James Hendricksen

Thursday-Many more dreams longing to be birthed, this is the season of harvest in the northern hemisphere, as well as the season of releasing and stripping away. These are not just physical items (although that can be very freeing as well) but also thoughts and beliefs that keep us confined... Autumn's call (is)  to simplicity. What is autumn calling you to release to make room for something bigger? (And for our southern hemisphere dancing monks, what is spring calling forth from you in this season?) Abbey of the Arts

Friday-Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God, your functional savior.― Martin Luther-A business language approach would be-what are your priorities and how do you set them? Do we look at the time of confession     as confiding in God? when can we speak of clinging to God?

Saturday-“I inquired what wickedness is, and I didn't find a substance, but a perversity of will twisted away from the highest substance – You oh God – towards inferior things, rejecting its own inner life and swelling with external matter.” ― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions How do we substitute external mapping for the journey inward?

Week of Oct. 5 spiritual points

Sunday-Ps 19 is one of the great  prayers that links creation to our lives. In both cases, if we see utter disorder, we do not see God’s order. While we have made great strides in public ethics, we have a long way to go to match the remarkable advances in understanding God's handiwork  through science. Monday- Is. 5:1-7 This text also invites the church today to wonder what walls or hedges we hide behind and what boundaries God is removing, so that our lives as God's people may embody righteousness and justice in our relationships with others in our own neighborhoods. .Julianne Barlow (Koivisto) Tuesday-Abbey of the Arts- Is. 48:6-7-  In the Christian contemplative tradition, we are invited to rest more deeply in the Great Mystery, to lay aside our images and symbols, and let the divine current carry us deeper, without knowing where, only to trust the impulse within to follow a longing... wisdom of embracing a season of unknowing, to wrest from their grip the idols of certainty and security.  Of the new things happening you have known nothing until this moment. Wednesday-Hope and fear, laughter and tears have been part of our journey. Joy and pain, longing and doubt meet on the pathway.Often we do not believe, O God,and sometimes we doubt that your promises can be true. Grant us and our world the freedom to laugh, the courage to cry, the heart to be open and the faith to believe.-from Celtic Treasure: Daily Scripture and Prayer. . Thursday-The Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance.... Indeed we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not.Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance. Thomas Merton Friday-This Is My My Father’s World is a fine hymn that holds some deep thought.Please read the lyric and look for the changes in tone and thought as it moves. Hymns provide  an additional treasure trove of contemporary psalmody in our devotional life. Saturday-According to Aelred…     Jesus Christ is the silent partner in every real human friendship. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ shares with us, in and through the bonds of friendship, the joy that is the love of God. Not only is such "spiritual friendship" a love that never ends, it is a love that is divine because ultimately it flows from God and returns to God. This means, of course, that a betrayal of friendship is not merely a social faux pas. It is not an unfortunate lapse about which we may "feel very bad." It constitutes a loss that shatters something of eternal significance in us.

Sabbath Sermon Notes (Ex. 20) Oct 5

October 5 Ex. 20 Sabbath Commandment-We honor the 10 Commandments. When they appear in the readings, I think it wise to focus on one. this year, I decided on the sabbath. Many of us recall the old blue laws that enforced  In churches the 10 Commandments were read before the Confession every week. Some folks thought that the church stood for thou shalt nots. At least a wing of the Presbyterian church took sabbath seriously indeed, as a time of rest but little in terms of recreation. For some, it appeared that we were being made for the sabbath requirements as Jesus said, not the sabbath for us. In a way, the sabbath command helps to hold the two tablets together, as it speaks of the holy and the rest human beings require.    Let’s seize on that for a moment. How is sabbath made of us? Only slaves and Americans want to work constantly. Being willing to work hae rd is a mark of character for many of us.We may well equate work and living, not working in order to live.

Sabbath is about worship and rest. Our sleep cycle is a bit of sabbath. for one third of the day, we rest. somehow the world turns without us ph shing it forward. (See Muller quotes)

We need rest. We are not made to be machines that are constantly on. sabbath recharges our batteries as electronic devices require stations to recharge them. Sabbath seeks rhythm in  life. I would suggest that maybe  those of us who live more sedentary lives celebrate sabbath with getting some exercise. One faculty I think we should seek sabbath is that which burdens us. I used to ask the farmers in Indiana to take a sabbath from worrying about crop prices and the weather on Sunday. Our eldest daughter went to a Saturday evening to Sunday evening Sabbath time of not doing school work. For the socially conscious, i do think it a salutary  advice to take a break from saving the world one day a week.

Since we emphasize work so much, retirement, an enforced social period of sabbath life is a challenge for many of us. i am haunted by the words of a retired pastor who said that he was OK financially through the pension system, but he had not given any thought with his retirement time. He had no clue how to enjoy the time now at his disposal. Even in retirement, people complain that they are busier and have a fuller calendar than when they were working.

Sabbath is about limitation. It limits time so we can  get some time with our center, with god. it reminds us that we do not have all the time in the world. We will always have more to do, so we can stop at times, without being finished. Maybe we should take a sabbath from our wired lives. Sabbath is holy as it sets aside a special time an dplace for us.

when I go on the secular sabbath known as vacation, it is an extension of work as I have a list of things to do. Sabbath invites to us to a world of being ourselves with no fixed schedule, of being along with doing.

Sabbath is preparation for heaven., to be ourselves, to enjoy God and all god’s benefits. We live too much in crisis time, but sabbath is God’s time of resting in god. Sabbath and heaven allow us to be instruments of God’s presence and spirit. In its most ancient sense salvation means having plenty of elbow room in a safe secure place. sabbath is a prelude toward heaven’s salvation.

Oct 12 Sermon Notes on Idolatry as Settling for Less

October 12, 2014-Ex. 32, Phil 4

Last week we had a focus on sabbath from the 10 Commandments. Many people miss that the Golden Calf episode stands as the opposite of celebrating sabbath.I don't know if I have ever worked out loud with the Golden Calf episode. Moses was gone for a little while, and the pressure to have a more visible God grew intense quickly for Aaron the religious leader. I don't know if paul was thinking of the golden Calf episode but God sees them as corrupt and stubborn (stiff necked) It is unclear if the issue is fashioning an idol image or a turning away from God fully.Part of the fear of graven images continues to be our tendency to try to freeze the living god into a construct of our preferences.  Moses calls god to god’s best self. His prayer is a bold one and uses reputation as an entry to speak with god, to persuade god to change, to repent or relent. Like teenagers now, once the party gets started it gets out of hand fairly quickly. They have not yet developed the maturity to have a party and not pay for it the next day.Moses is tempted by power here.The may be engaging in revelry maybe merely victory song.

I love that Paul pushes for some aspirations here. He does not settle for the least common denominator of I’m saved so take it easy. Here is a different way to celebrate the fullness of life.How to rejoice? In 12 step programs a good bit of testimony goes on about how to learn to celebrate without getting hammered. Rejoice over the strides we have made in the lifetime of a lifetime. MRI, skype, vaccinations

Rejoice in the presence of Christ. Celebrate our best. Instead of presenting aspiration toward excellence we have deceived ourselves into calling elitist a call to higher purpose.Jimmy Carter’s campaign biography was entitled why not the best? We use the phrase role model but do not find many who fit the name well. Stretch a bit. Read less fast food material. I would urge us to elevate the type of spiritual reading we may do. if we do it, it is often limited to a short devotion or something sentimental. We can certainly read our bibles with more care than we often do.we cna i engage our imaginations  and place ourselves into the situation described or move the passage into our situation today. When we read a parable, a difficult one like today, place yourself into the situation of each of the characters who are mentioned. I realize that a lot of us watch sports and movies purely to get away from the stress of life, but even there we can elevate our taste both in the teams we can appreciate or the type of movies we consume.I was given the almighty TV clicker recently and flicked through the channels as any good American male. the sheer junk on station after station, along with what appear to be full length commercials was disheartening.e are so quick to  go for less in life. I don;t watch much TV and don;t have cable or satellite, but Newton Minnow’s word about network Tv certainly fits the cable landscape, a vast wasteland.How quick the people are to give up their jewelry of gold to make an idol. We don't bat an eye at the cost of a sporting event, or a rock concert, but giving to charity is painful.This issue is a replay of the fall in genesis 3. We can receive all sorts of blessing and seem unable or unwilling to maintain them.

Devotional Pts for Oct. 19 Week

Sunday-Ps  99- is in  a section of praise on the reign of god. We rarely see evidence of it.  In God’s power, the Psalmist notes presence, worship, forgiveness,  and justice as defining attributes. How would you put those attributes in 2014? Be as concrete as you are able, not abstract, please

Monday“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”Thomas Merton

Tuesday Leonard Sweet-A man in West Berlin who worked in the eastern sector of that divided city. He would ride his bicycle to work each day and carry a bag of sand. Each day the surveillance officer at the checkpoint, suspicious of smuggling, would inspect the worker and the bag of sand, but never found anything. After months of this daily routine, the exasperated guard finally bargained with the worker, saying he would let him smuggle whatever he had in the sand if he would only tell him what it was.To the guard’s chagrin, the West Berliner confessed that he had been smuggling bicycles.Most often Jesus is up to something right under our noses, and we can’t see it. Wendell Berry reminds us that the turning of water into wine is, after all, a very small miracle compared to the greater but forgotten miracle by which dirt (with water and sunlight) is turned into grapes.

Wednesday- I wonder how I too lessen God by creating a picture and an understanding of God that fits into my life. I create a god in my image and wrap it in layer after layer of support and explanation, all the time reflecting only my own wants and desires. But the reality of God goes beyond what I understand and what I can fathom. When I recognize this I am moved to worship, trembling with awe, and singing a new song of reality.How are you moved beyond what you know and understand about God into the mystery that breathes with who God is? Be embraced by the mystery and raise your voice in a new song!O great and glorious God, open us to the mystery, the One who moves us to reverential worship, and let us join with all creation in raising our voices in a cacophony of song. Amen.Scott Peterson

Thursday-“Seek and you will find” (Matthew 7:7). What you seek is what you are going to get. What you expect is what you will call forth and recognize. What you allow and what you’re ready for is what can come toward you. But it has to be in you first, at least in the form of desire, or you won’t see it or recognize it when it is right in front of you. What a mystery this is. Richard Rohr,

Friday-Humanity was never wealthier than today, yet even those of us who are relatively well off worry obsessively about not having enough. Miroslav volf

Saturday-What lies ahead of the human spirit can only be reached through the slow process of living our way toward it." (Laurens Van Der Post)