Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Pts to Ponder-week of August 23

Sunday- Ps. 84 did not ring a bell with me when i saw it on the calendar.  Few of us have such devotion for being in church. It allows the psalmist to move “from strength to strength.” the sanctuary has a sense of home to the writer. Where does your soul find rest?

Monday-Augustine (late 300s): "All agree that God is whatever they put above all other things, … one supreme thing, and one which is shared in common by all who enjoy it; if, that is to say, it is a thing, and not the cause of all things; if indeed it is a cause. It is not easy, after all, to find any name that will really fit such transcendent majesty. In fact it is better just to say that this… is the one God 'from whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things' (Romans 11:36)" (De Doctrina Christiana 1.7.7, 1.5.5).
Tuesday-I think imperfection is the organizing principle of the entire human, historical, and spiritual enterprise. Imperfection, in the great spiritual traditions, is not just to be tolerated, excused, or even forgiven. It is the very framework inside of which God makes the God-self known and calls us into gracious union. It's what allows us--and sometimes forces us--to "fall into the arms of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31).Richard Rohr

Wednesday-"God loved us before he made us; and his love has never diminished and never shall."
—  Julian of Norwich

Thursday-“Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.” ~Albert Schweitzer

Friday-When despair for the world grows in me/and I wake in the night at the least sound.../I come into the peace of wild things/ who do not tax their lives with forethought/of grief. I come into the presence of still water./And I feel above me the day-blind stars/waiting with their light. For a time/I rest in the grace of the world, and am free./—“The Peace of Wild Things”Wendell Berry

Saturday-The face of a man walking his child in the park, of a woman picking peas in the garden, of sometimes even the unlikeliest person listening to a concert, say, or standing barefoot in the sand watching the waves roll in, or just having a beer at a Saturday baseball game in July. Every once and so often, something so touching, so incandescent, so alive transfigures the human face that it's almost beyond bearing. -Originally published in Whistling in the Dark




Sermon notes for aug. 23, I Kings 8, Eph. 6:10-20, John 6:56-69

August 23 John 6:56-69, Eph. 6:10-20, I Kings 8
When weapons of war are not handy, we try to shift the  focus. Perhaps the writer of ephesians sedes a parallel development. While wars are being waged, another invisible struggle is taking place at the same time. during the cold War we talked about this. Bristling with nuclear weapons, we also talked about a conflict of ideology as well.spiritual weapons- we do battle as christians-we can use military images but they are non-violent-they are for waging peace, for waging just peace.Maybe it -worship is the field, the arena where spiritual struggle gets played out. It is one of the few places where we try to speak the truth about the human condition.On one hand, we appear unarmed, even naked. On the other hand, we are well-equipped for the non-violent struggle we face day after day.Another way of approaching this is militant non-violence, militant peacemaking. some speak of worship as providing energy for the week, but here it is getting supplied for the conflict between being faithful and the alternative ways we learn to be human beings.
the ministry of Jesus i here in John is in the midst of life-denying conflicts in the midst of the one called the bread of life.We work with and struggle to understand the deliberately shocking words of Jesus  in this passage. We explicitly speak of receiving the bread of life in Communion. Christ is here with us feeding the power of life itself. jesus is with us,and we shall be with Jesus.Jesus refers to himself as a temple. In the sacrament we move from the physical to the spiritual dimension seamlessly at its best, a gateway to God from God’s own hand.
Solomon on the temple but will god really dwell on earth? to what degree can we speak of God’s location. Solomon speaks of God being open to the prayers in the temple constantly. 7 petitions are made concerning this new house of prayer. Forgiveness is part of that. Natural world open to prayer.Protection- open to non-Israelites- This is made even harder when we speak of each person as a temple, a dwelling place, a locus for the Holy spirit. How do we speak of a sanctuary, a holy place, but speak of the outside as a  sanctuary as well- In the Book of Order we read-Yes we can worship anywhere, but special space is for gathering in the reverence of God. Material  realities can be a means of prayer and dedication.What precedes it is careful, as it seems to reflect other temples but also the ancient instructions about the tabernacle.  They are a sign of offering our very selves to the worship of God.Solomon is wise. solomon prays.Solomon builds the temple when his father was told to wait. solomon saw wars as the great impediment to building the temple. With peace, he determined to build the temple at great expense of time, money, and labor. It was a microcosm of creation itself.sacred space is constructed space. Solomon’s prayer places him in a priestly, religious role. His prayer has a future in view. His blessing looks to the presence of god and as each day requires the people walk in God’s path.I have a difficult time finding mention of how worship in the temple needs to be an emotional experience for those who come there to pray.I don’t find any demands about dress requirements or the style of music.Worship boldly imagines a God-soaked, god-driven future. It dares to imagine a better world.
we render big questions, turning points in lives as approachable and bearable within the container, or frame, of worship.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

column on gottman and anger

Anger is one of the traditional seven deadly sins. One of our members noticed that some sermon material appears in my columns. This week, it is explicitly so. Many churches read Ephesians 4:25-5:2 for  worship this weekend. quoting a psalm, the writer tells us to be angry but do not sin-do not let the sun go down on your anger.”

First notice that the writer assumes that we get angry. It is not be not angry, but do not sin in anger, with anger. The sin is not anger itself, but how it is processed or used. Not admitting anger can be dangerous. Not using anger as a guide to one’s level of expectations is foolhardy. Mark Twain wrote: ”Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”  Second, the time factor is important. anger left festering, inside or outside, It sets the stage for real trouble.

Not that long ago, Adam Sandler was in  a surprisingly not terrible movie, Anger Management. That title is a good clue to anger. We cannot expect not to have it, but we do ourselves no favors in not controlling it either. One of the many baleful effects of baby boomer culture was the notion of “letting it all hang out” with anger and other emotions. Fearful of repression, we went to the other extreme. We know  that if anger is permitted to control us, if we feed it, it grows. We all know people who seem to scan the environment for the next thing to outrage them. We have a political culture designed to do precisely the same thing.With child rearing practices of high praise we are creating of generation of angry people whose  inflated expectations cannot hope to be met consistently.

As I have mentioned before, I have been taken with some of the research of Dr. John Gottman and his long reflections on watching couples in action in taped segments. He sees anger as feeding into “the four horsemen of the (relationship) apocalypse: criticism, contempt, stonewalling, and being overly defensive, or aggressively counter-punching. All of them have anger as a component of their toxin.

Gottman recommends calming oneself and the situation as much as possible. when we get anger, our emotional and mental systems get “flooded.” (this refers to older cars where one could flood the engine where the fuel mixture did not allow the engine to start Anger causes so many misfires in relationships, and it prevents the repair work that needs to be done when a conflict spirals out of control.The University of Wisconsin forgiveness project finds that those who learn to work with their anger and find forgiveness are much more likely to  deal with substance abuse than those who do not. their anger boomerangs against themselves.

Anger gets played out differently in an ambience of appreciation. Healthy marital interactions (and I see no reason to change this pattern in other settings) have a 5:1 ratio of positive interaction to negative.Let that sink in for a moment. What significant interactions do we have that match that ratio, especially those we claim to be vital?

Calming oneself is a key to keeping anger in bounds. It may be prayer; it may be placing oneself in a calming environment; it may be getting distracted with a ball game or shopping.

One of the few good children’s chats in church I have heard dealt with words spoken in anger. The speaker said that it was like trying to get toothpaste back into the tube. words and acts done in anger corrode the connections that allow relationships to live and flourish. It is time for adults to learn to m deal with anger in healthy ways.

august 9 week notes and quotes

Sunday- Ps. 130 is one of the great prayers.What are different ways to perceive depths? When has deep trouble most affected your prayers? When have you peered on the horizon for an answer to a prayer?

Monday-We sometimes think God will best meet our needs in demonstrations of mighty power—a miracle, a clear sign, an overpowering of our mind and spirit. Yet it is in small ways that God often comes. In bits of bread, taken and eaten, in gentle words of encouragement, God sustains us, too.
God of our sustenance, help me to listen when you speak in ways both large and small. Amen.
Bryan Woken
Tuesday-Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for an unknown God.-- from Amiel's Journal, translated by Mrs. Humphrey Ward
Wednesday-John Cassian, one of the ancient desert fathers, describes three renunciations he says are required of all of us on the spiritual journey. The first is our former way of life as we move closer to our heart's deep desires. The second is the inner practice of asceticism and letting go of our mindless thoughts. The third renunciation is to let go of our images of God—the idols we cling to so tightly—and to recognize that any image or pronouncement we can ever make about God is much to small to contain the divine. Even the word "God" is problematic because it carries with it so many interpretations and limits based on our cultural understandings.

Thursday-So much that we humans do, positive or negative, is automatic brain response; there is very little free-will involved. Every time we choose love, grace, and humility over our habituated brain reactions, we expand our realm of freedom. And love can only happen in the realm of freedom. Thérèse was a master at finding such freedom inside of very small spaces. Thus she called it her "little way." R. Rohr

Friday-While everybody else is in there jockeying for position and sweating it out, they can lean back, put their feet up, and like the octogenarian King Lear "pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh at gilded butterflies."Very young children and very old children also seem to be in touch with something that the rest of the pack has lost track of. There is something bright and still about them at their best, like the sun before breakfast. Both the old and the young get scared sometimes about what lies ahead of them, and with good reason, but you can't help feeling that whatever inner goldenness they're in touch with will see them through in the end.-Originally published in Whistling in the Dark
Saturday- John Calvin-“All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors.”


Sermon Notes on anger Eph. 4:25, 2 Sam 18

August 9 Eph. 4:25-5:2, 2 Sam. 18
Gottman on anger a plea for paying attention to something important-it’s underscores something- When linked with the four horsemen it becomes toxic-how it is handled also depends on how we handle conflict and anger and positive v. negative amount building up-Absalom and anger!) . the Sermon on the Mount looks at anger/wrath/rage The presidential candidate Ben Carson has spoken movingly of his youthful attempts to deal with his debilitating anger through consideration fo the book of Proverbs, say chapter 15.
Anger is an excellent diagnostic tool. For instance, it may demonstrate a boundary violation. It can be a blame reaction, or a sign of powerlessness and frustration. "flustrated." It may be a learned, patterned reaction -Gottman recommends that couples  agree to take a break when emotions grow heated and  comments get out of control. to take a Time out away from the angry feelings Partners should go away and do various coping skills deep breathing, self-soothing, and stress management to cool off- agree to return to finish the discussion when they are more in control of their emotions. Get rid of it. the other approaches (i.e., stuffing and expressing) are due to the person staying angry. The key thing is to stop feeling angry. All emotions, including anger, are a mixture of physical impulses (face reddening) and the meanings we assign to the feeling. Mental tactics can also reduce anger, such as by reframing the problem or conflict. For example, rather than being angered by a friend’s rude comment, one might reinterpret the comment as a sign of the friend’s exhaustion.  Distracting oneself and turning one’s attention to other, more pleasant topics, also works because angry people tend to ruminate ( I like the cattle image there)  about what made them angry Recent research has shown that taking a  detached perspective can also reduce anger and aggression. In addition, certain behaviors can help get rid of anger. For example, petting a puppy, watching a comedy, or performing a good deed can help, because those acts are incompatible with anger and therefore they make the angry state more difficult  to sustain.

Gottman's research urges  using a ‘soft' as opposed to a ‘harsh' start up. Be ready to use a more gentle introduction to talking about the issue. Let go of nit picking criticism whenever you can. -Practice damage control by giving five positive communications to one negative communication,  ‘positive sentiment override' where they agree to practice damage control after an argument. -try to speak of the problem as belonging to both of you‹not just your partner who should shape up. ‘Our issue is who should clean the house.' ‘You never do your share of the work.' sets the stage for defensiveness.Stay in the present and do not bring in old examples of the times you were hurt by your partner's behavior.a power struggle. One couple I knew had bitter fights over whose mother was the meanest! Some arguments can never be resolved because they are based on value differences between the couple that are so personal that they are not seen objectively.-Gottman says that two thirds of all arguments in a relationship will never get solved! so can we be  willing to distinguish solvable from unsolvable problems: What can be negotiated and what cannot? What is most important to you; what can you let go?.-As the poet, Anne Sarton said, we can choose to write ourselves back into sanity-    
Anger is a deadly sin for good reason. Left to  fester into the acts of an Absalom. Left unchecked, it place sus in situations that can harm relationships.

Monday, August 3, 2015

Column-the Dad Bod and Spiritual lLfie

I am the avatar of the Dad Bod. I see it as another example of the unfairness of life. My flabbiness matches the recession of the hairline. When I don a Santa suit, I don;t need to put on the padding for the belly. I was on my bike and stopped to get a lemonade from a child’s stand at a yard sale. “You are fat;” she graciously remarked as I paid her a quarter. I scrupulously avoid looking in mirrors, so as not to recognize the sagging mass of flesh.   

I have a multitude of excuses. I often eat a health product, a doughnut, for breakfast. Plantar fasciitis (foot pain near the heel)  keeps me from walking as much as I would like. (The only thing that really helps is a steroid injection). I realize that I weigh too much. I would have to exercise constantly to try to burn off the amount of calories that I ingest. I avoid buffets as it is a collision of my desire to “get my money’s worth” and a slide into being a glutton.

I wonder if my Dad Bod is related to a spiritual laxity as well.My list of excuses for spiriutal laxity cna easily grow as long as my list for physical decline. I just read that people undergo a training regiment before facing the many, many miles of pilgrimage, many paths over 500,  to walk the Camino de Santiago (road of James) in Spain. (Emilio Estevez did a movie on it, with his father Martin Sheen,The Way.) I assume it requires  a time of both physical and spiritual preparation, but some travellers seem to prepare physically alone and seem to expect the spiritual aspect of pilgrimage to wash over them during the journey itself.

As a representative of a Calvinistic faith, I emphasize the gift of grace and approach it with gratitude. Given that gift, how much of the Christian life is pure receptivity and how much effort to we place on efforts toward piety, what we would tend to call spirituality in our time? I applaud the spiritual practices movement.Lately, a bumper sticker keeps appearing on Facebook about being the church, as opposed to going to church.Worship has been part of “keeping the Sabbath holy.” (I do get a kick out of the loudest supporters of prayer a in schools and the public posting of the 10 Commandments seeming to miss this point.) I am mystified by the continued attempt to separate worship form the Christian life. Many of us are so spiritually slothful, that this small concession to spiritual discipline is not met. Yet, when people do come to church, they often find less graced refreshment that a constant push for more, more, more: money, or time, or efforts.

As I aged, I was under the impression that wisdom would emerge, even as my memory for knowledge decreases. It has not been the case. Spiritual practices lie scattered on the roadway, as some have helped for a bit, but many do not seem to fit the moment or my personality. I grasp intellectually the import of a physical fast, but the experience leaves me as empty as my stomach.

As I help with planning a trip to the rocky Mountain national Park, I have been good about walking more hills. I also anticipate uncommon moments in the commonplace of walking in the mountains: the sight of a smooth pool, a sudden flash of color on the rocks, the sweet scent of some unidentified herb wafting in the crisp air. One piece of spiritual wisdom I have acquired. God touches us with traces of grace in the everyday far more often than a moment of epiphany.

Notes on John 6 , 2 Sam. 12, Eph. 4 for Aug. 2

ugust 2 John 6:35, Eph. 4:1-16, 2 Sam. 12
bread of life Jesus is the gift itself-jesus is all-encompassing bread of life, all that sustains full and rich life Jesus works with this metaphor this point of comparison, but just as in previous chapters the folks are at one more physical plane and Jesus is linking the spiritual and the physical plane in new ways.-metaphor is a term of art of making a comparison- by definition it is not literal
great tragedy is to die before one has lived. torah, the teaching of god was often called the bread of life by rabbis. In John’s gospel all metaphors point to the same thing: Jesus is the way of God in the flesh. When presented with that reality, the usual response is confusion. Even though jesus is using words, he points to himself as god’s own image, god’s logic, god’s vision made flesh. Metaphors are tiny stories, often images, when we make a comparison, we create an image, and our minds fill in the gaps made by the placing together of two things. Automatically, Jesus saying i am the bread of life opens the door to an angle on grasping Jesus, but metaphors are not to be taken literally or they lose their force.

Eph. 4 grow up in christ (check if fullness applies here)I heard of a local church that claims worship should be entertainment-why it claims childhood as the pinnacle of development, but here adulthood is the aspiration-Being constantly serious is not the sole function of adulthood, but diving deeper, not remaining content with skimming on the surface is. The church should be willing to confront and try to deal with important questions, even if we dare not claim to give a final answer. unity amid distinction in function. We grow up together in this passage, as we are all joined together in Christ, with Christ, through Christ.-speaking falsehood deals death to the truth death to relationships-speaking the truth in love- some take this as more politeness; more miss the in love part and feel that they can hurt feelings and say whatever effluvia appears in the brain and goes directly to the moth (work with bakery bread image here) Listen to Walter Brueggemann on the “conversion of the imagination”{ in Scripture:”To this tired life, accepted as unquestioned reality, scripture offers another world, another way of being, that is both unsettling and comforting as it stands in prophetic judgment over the empires of the world. Scripture, in other words, is counter-imagination, a “rival eschatology,” as N. T. Wright puts it, to any system that claims “we have now arrived.”

story awakens David’s blind conscience-If Nathan directly told David, he may have lost his head. the story breaks down his defenses, and reminds him what it is like to be the king as dispenser of justice.through the art of his little story, he is able to break through the defenses and denial david has erected, then he delivers the epiphany.

The bread and cup we share are symbols, but more than that. We have always held that this is far more than an aid to memory of Jesus in the misty past. Yes, they represent the bread of life, the very lifeblood of christ. so when we receive communion, we are moving into deep religious ritual territory. we become part of the symbolism itself, as we participate in its reality. God continues to reach out to us, reach deep within us in this sacrament of Communion, holy elements, for holy people, in a holy place. We are being nourished into life eternal, this day and in the life to come. We participate, communicate with the living christ.
Sunday-Ps. 51 has a preface that indicates it was written in light of David’s repentance over the horrible series of acts after his “taking” of Bathsheba. When have you felt deepest remorese? when have you felt a turn, a repentance?

Monday-When we accept the help of others, we release their God-given gifts and enable them to become more fully who they are. When we accept help, we share our vulnerabilities, model how we solve problems, and strengthen community and the body of Christ. When we accept help, we open a space into which serendipity and grace can enter, and in which institutions can grow stronger. When we accept help, we use the collective gifts of the institution to work together for the collective good.

Tuesday-Kindness is human sized -- honest and doable, softening even the hardest of days. If I start with being kind - love is usually following along nodding it's head saying, "yes, that's the way it done." Carrie Newcomer

Wednesday-Middle aged eyes make interesting mistakes. I thought something that read God wants our honesty said God wants our modesty. I like that. It has a sense of lacking in vanity, of propriety, of not seeking undue attention. It is therefore related to humility as seen in public. Why would you consider it a christian virtue?

Thursday-Jesus praised faith even more than love; maybe that is why Saint John of the Cross called faith "luminous darkness." Yes, love is the final goal but ever deeper trust inside of darkness is the path for getting there. Richard Rohr

Friday-From Daniel Kirk-Let me put a finer point on it: If someone has to agree with your theological system in order to agree that what you are doing is “love,” then you are not loving your neighbor as yourself.

Saturday-From the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer:-Now it is evening, the day is over./What is done is done; what is not done is not done. Let it be.
week of August 2 quotes