Quick Note on Karen Greenberg's Rogue Justice

Karen Greenberg is  the director of the Fordham Law School National Security Center.

I recall my concerns about the Patriot Act in the terrible days after 9/11. I know that the Supreme Court did stand firm for same basic constitutional guarantees but they blurred in my memory that is not what  it once was.
With journalistic detail, Greenberg reminds us that the courts were faced with basic habeus corpus protections under real threat. At the same time lower federal courts relaxed standards amid the uncertainty of the law in facing terror as opposed to a nation state. I would have liked a bit more detail on some of the major Supreme Court decisions, but she strikes the major notes of the rulings.

She spends a  good deal of time on the legal justification for the anti-terrorist memos out of the White House. It is particularly strong on the early days where lawyers seemed as concerned about extending presidential powers as they were giving careful guidance on balancing national security and constitutional rights. This included John Yoo’s memos justifying what must be called torture and seeking to provide legal immunity for practicing it. Still, a number of officials in the Bush administration did try to curb excesses and struggle to restrain some of the broader claims made for executive power in the face of the threats of terrorism.

Greenberg  reminds us how far afield President Obama went in his action, as opposed to his words during his campaigns and even as Chief Executive. The administration did not prosecute those who tortured. The administration sent a drone strike against an American citizen for publicly supporting terrorist ideology on an attractive web site.

This book provides the virtue of perspective and time so we can assess more accurately the shape of civil liberties after 9/11.

Sermon Notes for March 26-Ps 23, Eph. 5, John 9, I Sam 16

March 26-John 9, I Sam. 16, Ps. 23 Eph. 5:8-14

I’ve worn glasses most of my life. I recall vividly having to walk several steps toward the eye chart to to have any idea of what they asked me to see.So, it is no surprise that images of vision capture me. -I Sam. 16. Samuel blind to the preference of God.Samuel sees  physical attributes and birth order, but he does not perceive the view of god.Jacobsen-. We rely for almost everything on our sight, but it often proves untrustworthy.(social psyc) We also tend to pick our leaders--politicians, principals, coaches, celebrities, and so on--based on our society's norms about appearance. Samuel cannot imagine that god would choose the one hidden away working as a shepherd, the runt of the litter.

Ps. 23 deep dark valley of the shadow-sometimes it is difficult to catch even a  glimmer of light in a valley-It can be peering into the grave or it can by the psychological dark valley of depression that lacks the energy to even look for the light. It uses a traditional hebrew image of salvation as being in a safe space with plenty of elbow room, as opposed to the constricted world of danger around the next unseen corner.why, the bright presence of God accompanies us on the mountaintop or the valley floor.

Eph. 5:8-14, light and dark imagery is a favorite tool for religious perception.Peeler-The group Paul has categorized as darkness, whose work produces non-fruit, does things in secret.Action reveals character. Action reveals intent.  Light exposes the cover of secrecy and darkness into the state of revelation. Back-room deals come to light when they are revealed to transparent view, as we say today..In a fascinating turn, then, Paul declares that everything which has been revealed  is now light.  Darkness is now exposed by the light. So a redemptive possibility exists even there. . If the people of the light expose the deeds of those in darkness, that  can result in those people’s transformation. Paul’s citation of a poem  makes it more likely that salvation is in fact in view.This passage is the opposite of the Adam and Eve story from last week -they live in the light-exposed for all to see-no hiding place, nor do they wish one.

Few passages demonstrate John’s method of levels of understanding more than this long chapter.John 9 healing of blindness-physical and spiritual  blind to faults-blind to good points in soc, psyc.Perhaps the greatest blindness is the question raised at the start of the chapter.Blind to god’s hand-blind to God’s agent-So locked in their way of seeing, they create a religious trial over a healing. John’s account makes a mockery out of their religious trial.The man’s sight is restored instantly, but his spiritual sight develops with the story.

Blind about causation-the disciples assume someone has sinned; they figure that misfortune has to come out of a misstep in morality;they need to blame the victim. People can’t believe that they are seeing the blind man now with sight.The religious authorities may be worse, as they see a blessing of healing and have to try to contort it to be the product of evil.

Role expectations and slots blind us. I see a teller in a bank and recognize them, but not on the street. I recall how astounded students were if they saw a teacher in the grocery or the pharmacy.

All of our texts alert us to a salient Lenten fact: the most difficult thing in the world to see are our own hidden assumption, the glasses we wear to look at each other, especially with the blinder that prevent us from self-examination.

Column on 25th Amendment

I’m playing around with the idea of writing a novel on the 25^th Amendment. Already, eyelids are growing heavy. Bear with me for a few moments. This is the 50^th anniversary of its ratification by the states.

When I was a child the President was incapacitated by a heart attack for a while, but we were not clear on the powers of the office devolving to the Vice President. After the horror of Dallas, Vice President Johnson had the oath of office on a plane, with JFK’s widow there in her blood spattered outfit.  When President Reagan was shot, the Secretary of State was confused about power being handed over, and the staff had the President scrawl his signature to show he was capable. Bill O’Reilly, in his series of books, alleges; I repeat alleges, that the president’s capacities went downhill after that.

The 25^th Amendment spells out emergency presidential succession of power. The TV show The West Wing has the president cede power when he feels incapable of handling the office when his daughter is kidnapped. That is under its terms, and should be used in real life when the president may have to undergo surgery.

Later its provisions get more involved. What if the president should divest power of office, but is unwilling to do so? Here is section 4 of the text: “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. “ 

Now this could get interesting. I can easily imagine a president going through the rigors of recovery from serious surgery and needing help on a temporary basis. I can also easily imagine a president slipping into dementia and be mentally incapacitated in emergency situations. Congress could create a body to examine presidential fitness. Let your mind wonder and wander about those who would fill this task force and why they would be asked to serve.

What if the president want to return to the duties of the office/ The amendment continues: “Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide …

I am not a particularly imaginative person, but it takes little to be able to conjure a vision of competing doctor’s opinions, or the release of tests by psychiatric evaluators. One could easily imagine an ambitious vice president searching for a way to gain the highest office in the land. One could even imagine a conspiracy between the Cabinet officers, the vice President and the leaders of both houses of Congress to remove the president, for cause, or not.

I continue to be impressed with Indiana Senator Birch Bayh’s prescience in trying to draft and pass an amendment that tried to peer into the future to cover a number of exigencies. Since the advent of the nuclear age, we have invested the office with enormous power. I am so proud of our governmental system   that we looked forward and tried to prevent the evil of succession chaos or free-floating power to be allowed to persist, in the event of presidential disability.

Points for Reflection-Week of March 26

3/26-Sunday-Ps.23 is a prayer many know by heart. While it is often read at committal services around here, it seems to fit most circumstances. Today, wi the other passages for liturgy, consider how it uses light and dark sight and inability to see as  controlling images for the prayer.

Monday-“Mindfulness is the opposite of multitasking, where we do several things at once and usually none of them well. When we are mindful we have the opportunity to focus on one thing or task at a time in order to appreciate the moment.--- Christine Valters Paintner

Tuesday-Brian Shivers-let us be people of wells, not walls, bridges not trenches; tables not fences; toward not from; with not against; together not separate of  people let us be…

Wednesday-"The abyss of God's love is deeper than the abyss of death. And she who overcomes her fear of death lives as though death were a past and not a future experience." (William Sloane Coffin)

Thursday-Why do we work so hard to resist our tears? Jesus wept. . . . The Hebrew Scriptures are filled with this prayer of crying out to God. Lament gives form and voice to our grief, a space to wail and name what is not right in the world in the context of prayer.”-- Christine Valters Paintner

Friday-With wide-embracing love Thy spirit animates eternal years Pervades and broods above, Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates and rears Though earth and moon were gone And suns and universes ceased to be And Thou wert left alone Every Existence would exist in thee There is not room for Death Nor atom that his might could render void Since thou art Being and Breath And what thou art may never be destroyed. Emily Bronte

Saturday-We believe that the divine presence is everywhere, and that the eyes of the Lord are in every place. ... but most of all should we believe this without any shadow of doubt, when we are engaged in the work of God." [David Parry,

March 19 Sermon on John 4, Ex. 15, Rom. 5

March 19-Ex. 17,  this is a story on water as well-Instead of sparring the people are complaining. They are stuck on the merely physical, but Jesus leads to a two tiered understanding of the symbolic heft of water.While Moses' response centers on the conflict, God's reaction delivers compassion. In this text, God never condemns the grumbling Hebrews. Moreover, God grants Moses the reassurance of the Divine Presence: "I will be standing there in front of you" (verse 6). In response to the people's petitions, God becomes present and provides.. The term Massah reflects the Hebrew word "place of  testing" while Meribah derives from the word is translated as "place of quarrel."The question--"Is the LORD present among us or not?"--is a deep question of concern when facing real threats. God's actions of presence and provision supply the answer needed by a fearful community.(Garber) Constant complaining  dries up our hearts and minds.God does not complain about the people. God acts to relieve their physical issue.

We know how contentious water rights a can be. We know of the immense  repair costs to the large dam in California and how its spillway threatened many. Ex 17 shows up in the psalms, so some importance to the water issue lasted into the history of israel. With flint Michigan and the fear of horrendous water pollution due to fracking, it continues to be a contentious issue.When I was a boy many of the streams ran bright red and were called sulfur creeks from what is now termed acid mine drainage, due to pollution from coal mining and its attendant waste products piled high in what we called slate dumps.they were virtually devoid of life.

Rom 5 Hogan-. God loves us so much that, even when we were (and are) weak; even while we were (and are) sinners... We have a faithful God who was and is willing to go to any length to reconcile us.Paul paints a picture of God that is in harmony with the portrait of God given to us by Jesus. This is the God who will search high and low for us when we are lost and have wondered off. Ours is the God who runs out to meet us, the prodigal daughters and sons.

Water is an infinitely fluid image.It is the physical necessity for life on this planet.It is precious-I grew up in the old mining area of SW Pa. when i was a child the creeks were orange and called sulfur creeks from mine runoff. Even in chemistry class, the pollutants in that water  seemed countless.Around the same time Lake erie was declared dead due to algae growing in its polluted waters. It still has a long way to go, a sit was a dump site for years.You can fish for steelhead trout there.

John 4. Again we get the comic effect of someone staying at the physical plane alone when Jesus is moving to a different level. It is about having an encounter, as the light of Jesus' truth and love shines on our past and our future, and then  go share his abundant grace gushing up to eternal life in us.(Stamper) This reads to me as a contrast to the previous long Nicodemus story.It too has lots of wordplay. This outsider is more advanced spiritually than the people of the Exodus.\living water =running water-abundance of water in spirit.This seems to me to continue Jesus speaking of being born from above through water and the spirit ( see John &:37-9);  the  waters of baptism apply here.All Christians can be searchers/seekers. We probe the depths of the divine in engagement with us.

John 4-Column on reading Bible with new glasses

A child is able to read the words of the bible with ease, especially with the simplified versions on the market. It takes a lifetime to wrestle with the words of the Bible, to wrest meaning from them as one moves in the life of faith. Our eldest daughter contributed to a paper that considers the hidden injuries and often invisible advantages of different status levels. Whenever we read Scripture, the lenses of status impinge on how we read and hear the Bible. Today, many churches are reading John 4, the meeting of Jesus and a woman at the well. Some of the ways it is read reflect more the reader’s preconceptions than what the text actually indicates.

When one reads John, it is helpful to keep an interpretive rule in mind: John uses the physical as a gateway to the spiritual level; he holds them in tension. To insist on one level is an interpretive mistake, one that these early dialogues demonstrate.

Samaritan- Prejudice was as real as racial prejudice in our time. Very quickly, the Northern and Southern kingdoms of David and Solomon split. The Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom some centuries later and exiled some and forced the immigration of other peoples, as a political attempt to ease nationalistic fervor. The southern kingdom thought that they mixed some other religious beliefs and practices during this time.  One of the things the newly freed southern kingdom did, before the birth of Jesus, was to destroy, allegedly, the Samaritan sanctuary or  temple.

Jewish-for many Christina readers this story serves to show the superiority of an outsider to the religious leader Nicodemus. This is in direct opposition to the text itself where Jesus is clear about the origin of salvation (4:22). In a time when anti-Jewish actions and threats are on the rise, this is a powerful warning to Christians.

Imagining the woman-  I do not know how many times the woman has been imagined, usually by male pastors, to be an ancient version of Elizabeth Taylor’s many marriages. The potential sexuality of the woman’s many marriage sis heightened by the meeting at a well, a venerable Biblical trope for meeting a future spouse. The first sign of Jesus is at the wedding at Cana, and then we have a mention of a bridegroom at 3: 29. The bridegroom then may be read as spiritual level of the deep bond between God and an expanded people. Multiple divorces could only be a product of  a male determination in that legal culture. She may have been widowed multiple times. In all likelihood, she is probably in quite an economic  and social plight. As Fred Craddock notes, “the brighter the nail polish, the darker her mascara, the shorter her skirt, the greater the testimony to the power of the converting word.”

The woman is shown in clear juxtaposition to Nicodemus in chapter 3. While they are both struggling in the darkness of incomprehension, she is the more acute. In a way, she is portrayed as another Eve, but instead of a theological discussion with the sly serpent, she is dealing with Jesus. While Nicodemus remains in the dark and disappears from the account, the woman becomes a witness. Already the sign of the life of Jesus is spreading in the gospel narrative. Already boundaries are being crossed, as walls of separation come down.

Living water could mean a spring or fresh running water. Jesus is pointing toward a water of life redolent of the Scriptures and of baptism itself. We will get a further clue at 7:37-39. There rivers of living (flowing) water are line dot the gift of the outpouring of the Spirit. Her understanding has not reached that level early in the narrative. Like anyone ecounter9ing John’s gospel, she is moving toward enlightenment, moving toward greater, deeper understanding of the identity and message of Jesus.

Column On John 4 and reading the bible with new glasses

A child is able to read the words of the bible with ease, especially with the simplified versions on the market. It takes a lifetime to wrestle with the words of the Bible, to wrest meaning from them as one moves in the life of faith. Our eldest daughter contributed to a paper that considers the hidden injuries and often invisible advantages of different status levels. Whenever we read Scripture, the lenses of status impinge on how we read and hear the Bible. Today, many churches are reading John 4, the meeting of Jesus and a woman at the well. Some of the ways it is read reflect more the reader’s preconceptions than what the text actually indicates.

When one reads John, it is helpful to keep an interpretive rule in mind: John uses the physical as a gateway to the spiritual level; he holds them in tension. To insist on one level is an interpretive mistake, one that these early dialogues demonstrate.

Samaritan- Prejudice was as real as racial prejudice in our time. Very quickly, the Northern and Southern kingdoms of David and Solomon split. The Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom some centuries later and exiled some and forced the immigration of other peoples, as a political attempt to ease nationalistic fervor. The southern kingdom thought that they mixed some other religious beliefs and practices during this time.  One of the things the newly freed southern kingdom did, before the birth of Jesus, was to destroy, allegedly, the Samaritan sanctuary or  temple.

Jewish-for many Christina readers this story serves to show the superiority of an outsider to the religious leader Nicodemus. This is in direct opposition to the text itself where Jesus is clear about the origin of salvation (4:22). In a time when anti-Jewish actions and threats are on the rise, this is a powerful warning to Christians.

Imagining the woman-  I do not know how many times the woman has been imagined, usually by male pastors, to be an ancient version of Elizabeth Taylor’s many marriages. The potential sexuality of the woman’s many marriage sis heightened by the meeting at a well, a venerable Biblical trope for meeting a future spouse. The first sign of Jesus is at the wedding at Cana, and then we have a mention of a bridegroom at 3: 29. The bridegroom then may be read as spiritual level of the deep bond between God and an expanded people. Multiple divorces could only be a product of  a male determination in that legal culture. She may have been widowed multiple times. In all likelihood, she is probably in quite an economic  and social plight. As Fred Craddock notes, “the brighter the nail polish, the darker her mascara, the shorter her skirt, the greater the testimony to the power of the converting word.”

The woman is shown in clear juxtaposition to Nicodemus in chapter 3. While they are both struggling in the darkness of incomprehension, she is the more acute. In a way, she is portrayed as another Eve, but instead of a theological discussion with the sly serpent, she is dealing with Jesus. While Nicodemus remains in the dark and disappears from the account, the woman becomes a witness. Already the sign of the life of Jesus is spreading in the gospel narrative. Already boundaries are being crossed, as walls of separation come down.

Living water could mean a spring or fresh running water. Jesus is pointing toward a water of life redolent of the Scriptures and of baptism itself. We will get a further clue at 7:37-39. There rivers of living (flowing) water are line dot the gift of the outpouring of the Spirit. Her understanding has not reached that level early in the narrative. Like anyone ecountering John’s gospel, she is moving toward enlightenment, moving toward greater, deeper understanding of the identity and message of Jesus.

Devotional Pieces Week of March 19

Sunday-Ps.95 starts as  a praise psalm, on God as Redeemer and Creator, somewhat surprising for this penitential season.It’s here as a link to our reading of Ex. 17.Now it shifts abruptly and is fearful that we do not trust god any more than did the people in the wilderness. When do you find a trust in God, and when is that trust shaken?

Monday-Some people have put that together with the idea of Jesus being punished for our sins on the assumption that when an animal was sacrificed, the person who brought the sacrifice deserved to be punished and perhaps killed when the animal was being killed in their place. Now that idea may have had some currency in the pagan world but that doesn't seem to be what's going on in the Jewish sacrificial cult. For a start, the animals are not killed on the altar. The animals are killed elsewhere, and that isn't so important. What is important is that the blood which is collected is used as a purifying agent to purify not only the worshipers but also the temple furniture, and so on. The result is that the stain of death, which comes from human corruption and the corruption of the present material world, is covered by the life which is the blood. That seems to be what's going on in Leviticus.

Tuesday-William Blake said, “As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.”

Wednesday-Jinkins-"If we read carefully, we note that the fruit of the Spirit is not miracles or mighty acts of ethical behavior, but rather deep-seated traits of personal character. ... What the Spirit does is nurture within us those traits of character that will express themselves naturally in the way we choose to behave." (Lindsey, Charter, 131.)Paul reminds us that the symbol of the Christian faith is not a castle but a cross. He reminds us that we do not live for ourselves, but are called "to be to others what Christ has become for us," as George MacLeod once wrote.

Thursday-“Hildegard described vices as the twisted form of the virtues so that the more we come to know our own ‘vices’, which we might call compulsions or stuck places, the more we can come to know the other side of those that is our heart’s deep desire, our longing to respond to the world from love. It comes down to the distinction between ego cravings and soul desires.”

Friday-"Search me, penetrating Spirit.Drag the depths for the sunken accumulations of my life.Retrieve it all:the old unhealed wounds,the memories I have tried to keep from you, who alone can remedy and smooth.Receive my sacrifice of grudges, the sludge of unforgiveness.The slights I hoard like old green pennies,the pettiness I practice to protect myself from pain. I offer you the worthless cache of my spirit's cuts and bruises, the elaborate self-deceptions that have long outlived their use. Take what you find in the sodden sea chest of my mind, and show it all to me.Let me see what I've submerged:what I ought to salvage "(Rachel  Srubas,)

Saturday-I cannot do this alone.In me there is darkness,But with you there is light;I am lonely, but you do not leave me;I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;I am restless, but with you there is peace. In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience; I do not understand your ways, But you know the way for me….Restore me to liberty,And enable me to live now (Bonhoeffer Lenten prayer)

Quick note on Thomas Frank's Listen, Liberal.

I finally finished Thomas Frank-Listen, Liberal. I first became aware of him with his book on wondering how Kansas moved from a late 19^th century populist stronghold to a radical right red state.  Personally, I like its angle of criticism. It takes dead aim at the Democratic Party rejection of the working class. He traces the movement to the division over the Vietnam War and the change in the Democrats party rules in favor of a younger well-educated, white collar constituency. The rule changes of the McGovern group that led to the 1972 convention were its start to move against the power of labor unions. .As time went on, this turned into policy and personnel in administrations. It presciently notices some of the reasons Sec. Clinton did not connect with working class voters, even though some policy proposals went distinctly left. In other words he sees a direct line from Gary Hart to Clinton to Obama. As time went on, this turned into policy and personnel in administrations. It fell in with the new economy entrepreneurs and “innovation” as a watchword. In part, taking sides with this element of society and culture helps explain the liberal orthodoxy of belittling the intelligence of those who oppose them, rather than making a case for a policy and making a case against an opposing view.

Democrats adopted a much more conservative economic policy that was a geared toward the new approach to Wall Street investment ideas and a love affair with high-tech. With Clinton, Robert Reich spoke for the younger generation of Democrats, baby boomers, who had little respect for the old liberal warhorses and their economic ideas. Flushed with an almost religious belief that the service sector was the inevitable wave of the future, Carter Democrats led a wave a de-regulation, especially in the financial sector. They turned a blind eye to the trend line of increasing economic inequality and the stagnation of wages and opportunity for most Americans. Wave the magic word innovation and new Democrats swoon. They seem blind to a vision of meritocracy that is often based on class divisions. Liberals see an inevitable service sector shift as leaving the old working class behind.

Not only does it have some stark illustrations, one can find a treasure trove of data in its pages, especially in its footnotes.

GW Bush lowered the bottom rate to 10% and expanded Medicare to include a prescription benefit. Both aided working class Americans. Democrats cannot point to a similar set of programs enacted that have this level of aid for their “natural” constituency.

Column on anniversaries

Shakespeare had folks say: beware the Ides of March. During the first full week of March, things were rarely good in our house. My mother was depressed most of the time, but I started to notice that this was somehow worse. Later, I put it together with the anniversary of my father’s death in a tanker accident on the Delaware River on the 7^th. Just this Tuesday, I was downcast and only realized the date when I glanced at the calendar.

He did not like serving on tankers, but the money was good. The San Francisco had emptied its fuel, but the vapors were trapped in its hold. (If you want a feel for the kind of ship, see the movie Finest Hour). When faced with loss, we torture ourselves with what if and what if not thoughts.

Many times, Christians like to trot out Romans 8:28 in the midst of tragedy. Personally, I see no good coming from his death. My mother made a foolish vow not to marry again if she was able to bring the child she was carrying to birth. Sometimes, in time, we can glimpse some good out of tragedy. My interest in grief work probably stems from the loss of a father. At the public level, the tanker explosion finally brought us to increasing safety standards on tankers and coming to grips with the fact of the danger of flammable vapors in their holds. In other words, lives were saved.

Recently, an old friend called to process the loss of an imagined future with an old friend. Loss changes our construction of the future. It is no easy task to reconstruct a future in the face of absence. We wonder about how things would have been with their presence. It’s interesting how we rarely forecast the future with negative things with them. We do idealize the future, even in the face of abundant evidence to the contrary.

Anniversaries are a way to mark our time together. Whether public or private, anniversaries chart the scope of the geography of our lives.

When facing the anniversary of loss consider writing a letter, similar to a Christmas card letter to the love done. In the Christian doctrine of the communion of saints, we are held by the bands of our loves (Shades of Grey notwithstanding). Some find meaning in a memorial gift or action that fits the remembered one. Examine some keepsakes. Recently my cousin sent me old photographs of my mother and of the three of us on a trip to Washington DC. Yes, it was a shock to realize that I am the only living one in our nuclear family left. Still, it restimulated memories of my youth and that trip. Pray. If words don’t come easily use the Psalms as a template and have it fit your present condition.

These types of actions won’t bring closure as in the end of grief. Merely acknowledging that the loss is freshened releases energy to go on despite the loss. Marking a loss allows us to see how far we have come and how far we have yet to go.

“There is a deeper need yet, I think, and that is the need—not all the time, surely, but from time to time—to enter that still room within us all where the past lives on as a part of the present, where the dead are alive again, where we are most alive ourselves to turnings and to where our journeys have brought us. The name of the room is Remember—the room where with patience, with charity, with quietness of heart, we remember consciously to remember the lives we have lived.” ― Frederick Buechner

Sermon Notes John 3 March 12

March 12- Gen. 12 Ps121 John 3 Rom. 4 In some ways we are at square one this morning, the very core of christian belief. We just started a confirmation class, where young people are taking their first adult look at the basics of the faith. In a way John 3 is confirmation class for the student Nicodemus.We are too content to stop there, and we move a bit deeper this morning.Let’s be clear. John’s gospel is a b about jesus speaking about a whole new level of spiritual existence but his hearers keep taking him at the physical level alone.

Jesus  recalls the story of the plague of venomous serpents that were threatening the Israelites (Numbers 21:6-9). The anti venom to the bites of the "fiery" poisonous serpents was to look at the "fiery" bronze serpent that Moses lifted up on a "pole" (Numbers 21:9). We should imagine a vertical pole and a bronze serpent entwined around it, like a caduceus, still the symbol of a pharmacy. In Greek, the word for the "pole" is sēmeion, which can also mean "signpost."

In this Gospel the identity of Jesus as the Son of Man, the end time figure,  is determined by his heavenly origin and destination.. But just as the bronze serpent lifted up on the sēmeion/pole brought life in place of death in the story in Numbers, so also when the Son of Man (Jesus) has been "lifted up" on another kind of pole--the cross--he will bring, not judgment, not condemnation, but eternal life to all who believe or trust in him (John 3:14-15). If you will Jesus makes use of the instrument of death to bring life to us.It is a wooden beam, not a shining form. Jesus is the anti-venom for sin, for the death-dealing wreckage we produce.

The word s̄emeion is a play on words. Nicodemus whose name means victory of the people, opened the conversational inquiry  by praising the "signs" Jesus had been doing. This Gospel identifies many of Jesus' deeds that demonstrated his power as "signs" (see for example, 2:11, 23; 3:2; 4:54; 6:14; 12:18). They are "signs," of the identity of Jesus; they led the story forward to its inevitable conclusion on the cross.The signs themselves point to power of God, but they fade in the light of the turning of divine power on the cross. Nicodemus meets the light of the world at night.Just as the people are saved by looking above, now Nicodemus learns that a new birth will come from above, itself a play on the word again.

In this Gospel, it is Jesus' being "lifted up" on the cross that is the moment of triumph for the one who is God's own presence among us. The word translated lifted up, hypsoō, can also mean "exalt" or "glorify." In the paradoxical logic--the mystery--of God, it is the moment of a cruel and shameful death that is the triumph of eternal life (3:16). The "one sent from God" (as Jesus is known in this Gospel) and God the Sender  set  a new pattern of divine work. (Ringe)

God is identified as the one who justifies the ungodly, the one who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.  God brought us into being, into  relationship, gave us the gift of the Spirit, showed mercy, and in all that acted faithfully to the promises long made and never forgotten.The promise to Abraham to be a blessing for all people comes to fruition in and through Jesus, for his people and for all people.Ps. 121 is lived out every day, especially its conclusion, in this world and the world to come.

Devotional Pts. for Week of March 12

Sunday-Ps.121 is  one of the great prayers. It fits the readings today  as it features  light. It connects fear, I think, with being in the dark. Where does darkness descend like a pall over you? When does light dispel it?

Monday-A morning prayer from “Celtic Benediction” by J. Philip Newell – March 1-With the rising of the sun life rises again within me, O God.In the dawning of the morning light you lead me from the mists of the night into the clarity of the day.In the new light of this day bring me to a clearer knowing of the mystery that first bore me from the dark.Bring me to a clearer knowing of the love from which all life in born.

Tuesday-"There is a story from the Desert Fathers where an Abba says to a seeker, 'Do not give your heart to that which does not satisfy your heart.'

Wednesday-Just as spring follows winter, we feel the first unstoppable quickening beneath the ground. Something good is awakening, opening up and out of the dark days of winter. Can you feel it. Can you believe it, even now in the beautiful soon, but not yet? Something of health, light and life is calling us forth, back into "doing" but with a renewed and deeper sense of "being", direction and purpose.The Beautiful Not Yet" was co-written by Carrie Newcomer and Chloe Grace Caemmerer

Thursday-Charles Allen-O God, you have been moving around and through and ahead of us long before we ever noticed, undoing every image we have used to confine you. Open us, in this season of letting go, to what our minds can never encompass, that we may rediscover the self-giving way of Jesus as our way and your way together. Amen

Friday-statio, which is the commitment to stop one thing before beginning another. Imagine that instead of rushing from one appointment to the next you pause between each one and breathe just five long, slow breaths."Abbey of the Arts

Saturday-It is the strange paradox that our work is something we do; yet it is only a manifestation of God's work in us, expressed in the Latin koan: orare est laborare est orare... to pray is to work is to pray....Ira Kent Groff

Notes for March 5 Sermon

First week Of Lent March 5

Mt 4-not obviously temptations toward evil  but more of a test a trial between the typical path of human beings and a different way. Would jesus sees his power as being a lottery winner or would he see it as an opportunity for others ?They all could put detours from his path-all would combine to stop the way of the cross-son of God for the caesars-40 noah, moses, elijah-how would Jesus use his power? Look back as a representative of Israel in the wilderness-a weapon is using Scripture all form a little section in DT.

Genesis 2-3? I find it more helpful to look at this story as one about human nature. They live in a paradise, and they have but one prohibition, and they fixate on that. The Fall tempt/test/try the issue of trial putting God to the test. The serpent is a very clever and talkative animal "that the LORD God had made" (Genesis 3:1).  The serpent is one of God's own creatures who poses some questions and alternative explanations concerning God's motivations in creation for the humans to consider.  At any point in the conversation, the humans could have resisted  the serpent.One little limitation and they cannot resist breaking it. Why disobey? (See Trible)  But there was something already in the human that resonated to the suspicion that the serpent offered as one option for interpreting the words and actions of God. (Olson) She contemplates the deed and moves toward her thought process.Irenaeus: wisdom v. crafty/sly love story gone awry. You will be as gods is the fundamental human temptation. The fundamental sin against the humility of limitation.Human beings can be in paradise and figure out a way to ruin it. A marriage begins in the intoxication of the paradise of love and  it gets tangled into something else.nakedness to  hiding. We are not wise.anxiety seems to be controlling.Phyllis Trible notes that the couple as a unit reflect our dance with sin as one is active and one is passive.their   eyes are indeed opened, but not with innocence- “now they know “helplessness, insecurity,and defenselessness.”They want to conceal, to hide., to cover up.

Romans 5-The men’s bible study on Monday has been marching through Romans. Paul re-interprets the story from Genesis and makes  2 types Adam and christ. Jesus as new type of human being.original sin/ trespass language justification/rectification made right-aligned properly This is not what Paul says that God offered in Christ. God offered this and so much more. God offered justification, right relationship- realignment to the way of God -- God shared God’s character, God’s own self, with us; offered us the possibility of becoming like God’s self.And so, in verse 17, Paul stresses that through the one man Jesus Christ we are offered the opportunity to receive the abundance of the gift of righteousness. we will reign in life.  

Ps 32 imputes no iniquity deals with guilt as well psychosomatic action-I don't know how much power penitential psalms have any more as guilt seems to be a declining reaction to sin.

How do we use our power? When we call sin mistake or a poor choice, we are draining it potential for guilt.

It seems Lent is fundamentally a period of preparation for Holy Week. Jesus  faced the trials of living out a faithful life, just as we  do. That intense period of the biblical number 40 connects us with the story of Scripture. It provides space and opportunity for seeds of the spirit to be planted and growth for already flourishing  foliage

Devotions Week of March 5

Sunday-Ps. 32 is a classic text on forgiveness and its release for those of us who sin. When and how do we use that word, sin in 2017? How about forgiveness?

Monday-The Lord is more constant and far more extravagant than it seems to imply. Wherever you turn your eyes the world can shine like transfiguration. You don’t have to bring a thing to it except a willingness to see. Only, who could have the courage to see it?” ~Reverend John Ames in Marilynne Robinson’s, 'Gilead: A Novel' (2004)

Tuesday-Francis de Sales: “Each of us has his own endowment from God, one to live in this way, another in that. It is an impertinence, then, to try to find out why St. Paul was not given St. Peter’s grace, or St. Peter given St. Paul’s. There is only one answer to such questions: the Church is a garden patterned with countless flowers, so there must be a variety of sizes, colors, scents — of perfections, after all. Each has its value, its charm, its joy; while the whole vast cluster of these variations makes for beauty in its most graceful form.”

Wednesday-This Lent I don't feel called to give up something and certainly not add  on anything to an already full plate. Is there something in between? Ah! To go about what I'm already doing but with new eyes, to live  awake with new intent this Lent, with a magnifying glass to see what's there already that I walk past, with a looking glass to notice what I'm overlooking in myself that would change the way I look at other people I see every day.  This lent I pray for new eyes that I may live and act transparent, then rise in forty days resilient. Ira Kent Groff

Thursday-Buechner-Ritual-A WEDDING. A HANDSHAKE. A kiss. A coronation. A parade. A dance. A meal. A graduation. A Mass. A ritual is the performance of an intuition, the rehearsal of a dream, the playing of a game.A sacrament is the breaking through of the sacred into the profane; a ritual is the ceremonial acting out of the profane in order to show forth its sacredness.A sacrament is God offering his holiness to men; a ritual is men raising up the holiness of their humanity to God.

Friday-"A rainbow is not just a symphony of colors sent to calm the storm in our souls; it is a talk with God, a mysterious, miraculous conversation with God, heart to heart, the very heart of God saying to our hearts, 'I remember I am your God. Be my walking rainbows, so that the whole world will know to whom you belong, for I am the God who keeps promises, and I have not forgotten our covenant.' That is the hope of the church: that God keeps promises. The mission of the church is to walk among the suffering and give, for we are covenant keepers, walking rainbows, bringing the hope of the good news to the poor." (from "Kneeling in Jerusalem" by Ann Weems)

Saturday-"My life is a mystery which I do not attempt to really understand, as though I were led by the hand in a night where I see nothing, but can fully depend on the love and protection of Him who guides me." —THOMAS MERTON

Version of Remembering Mary Lou Cousley

We had a service for Mary Lou Cousley and her family and friends on Friday, the 3^rd. For four hours people came to offer condolences and pay respects to a grieving family.

I was thinking that she was part of an in-between age group: younger than those who remembered the Depression and WWII vividly. She was roughly the age of the Beatles. So she came of age with Elvis. Vietnam was her age group’s war--in between age cohort- she obviously saw many changes in our country. Our service started with a countercultural announcement: A memorial service gives permission and a stamp of approval to grieve. One of the more noxious elements of baby boomer culture is its insistence that we should not grieve even at a funeral service but that we should only celebrate a life to forestall tears and grief. We should grieve; we need to grieve when a light form life is gone, when a loved one is gone. Then in time peace may emerge instead of a series of unfinished unresolved loss.

Ash Wednesday was a few days ago, though my guess is that Mary Lou preferred Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras parties. It is a reminder of mortality, ashes to ashes. In the physical realm, we are born dying and in baptism are dying to the old self in order to live

Every week, we read a section of a creed. Toward the end, we read of the resurrection of the body, the communion of saints, and the life everlasting. Resurrection in Greek means to stand again. The resurrection of the body continues to bedevil us. Resurrection points us toward a suspicion I have about God. God cannot bear to see all the traces of a life wash away t like the sand on the beach she loved. A person who attends here said that Marty Lou greeted people with sincere interest, as if she thought well of you. The traces of a life are integrated, broad, and straight. Lent season passes into Holy Week into the season of Easter. Resurrection of the body-we resist the separation of life into components of body, mind, heart, spirit. Yes, her remains are being cremated, broken down into their constituent elements. The creator of the universe can arrange and rearrange energies so that her life is engaged in a new dimension, beyond some sense of a spiritual piece floating about aimlessly.

Communion of saints-Mary Lou loved a good party said Steve.  Love does not respect boundaries, even the boundary of death itself. The bonds of love do not disappear with a death. Further, we maintain that she lives with us; her continuing bonds link her to us. So she continues to dote on Steve, her children and grandchildren. Our bonds with her do not reach a cutting off, but they continue.

Everlasting life- Her life her loves, her memories persist, perdure in a new way. The bible is reticent, properly so, about the conditions of the afterlife, but we get a hint of h it in our readings today. Jesus speaks of preparing a place for us where there is plenty of room, but I suspect Mary Lou would prefer the KJV in my father’s house are many mansions. In worship John’s vision expands and he sees beneath the lid of reality, a revelation. One fine day death will be no more, tears will be dried. . One fine day the tears will be spent and no need to replace them. John’s vision includes a new Garden of Eden where the leaves of the trees are for the healing of nations. She wears immortality like a new outfit