week of July 19 devotions

Sunday-Ps.89:2-37-this psalm ends one of the Psalms sections. It fits our reading of the promise made to the house of David. It includes the conditional support of god, if the kings follow the ways of God. when do you see the love of god as conditional or as unconditional?

Monday-Southern Georgia writer Flannery O'Connor used the phrase "the Habit of Art" to describe seeing the Divine permeating every sphere of life, often in the form of "turbulent grace" that throws you off balance.

Tuesday-”without any work to claim when people asked me “what do you do?”, I was often in emotional pain as well over the loss of an identity. I didn’t look sick and often came judgment from others, or inner judgment about why I wasn’t trying harder. Many were supportive, but others offered unwelcome advice or explanations about how I wasn’t thinking the right thoughts. Dr. Joan Borsyenko describes this as “new age fundamentalism.” A great gift arrived to me one day at church, when a woman asked me that dreaded question. I responded about taking time for healing and she said, “oh, you’re on a sabbatical.” And with that phrase came a wave of relief, a connection to ancient wisdom about our need at times for deep restoration.

Wednesday- Christ is our peace, not the thing that divides us, rather that which eliminates division and allows us to see the broken humanity that is also in ourselves and not just those who have not confessed his holy name. Through his eyes we are all unworthy, and yet beloved; broken, but not yet beyond redemption. When our eyes have such sight we can approach those outside of our fellowship as brothers and sisters instead of as others who must be conformed to us in order to find welcome. Structural Christ, foundation and cornerstone of all blessing and hope, have mercy upon us. We revel in our freedom and security so much that we forget that while others may stand on softer ground, that is not their failing but ours in neglecting to draw them to the solid rock. Strengthen our arms to reach out in love alone to the strangers in our midst. Amen.R. Tim Carnahan

Thursday-Speak when you are angry - and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret.Laurence J. Peter

Friday-“Besieged is how most people feel most of the time… To feel crowded, set upon, blocked by circumstances, in defeat or victory, is…the daily experience of most human beings in most contemporary societies…. Besieged as we are, little wonder that men and women alternate between the dream of a place apart, untouched by the world and then wanting to be wanted again in that aloneness. Besieged or left alone, we seem to live best at the crossroad between irretrievable aloneness and irretrievable belonging…

Saturday-"Silence is like a river of grace inviting us to leap unafraid into its beckoning depths. It is dark and mysterious in the waters of grace. Yet in the silent darkness we are given new eyes. In the heart of the divine we can see more clearly who we are. We are renewed and cleansed in this river of silence. There are those among you who fear the Great Silence. It is a foreign land to you. Sometimes it is good to leap into the unknown. Practice leaping." --Macrina, taken from Seven Sacred Pauses.

Column notes-grammar and hymns

Change is the only constant in life. I get annoyed with the “grammar police” at times. It seems to me that they are claiming a standard when we don’t agree on the standard. It seems that we seize on grammatical niceties, the trivial, and miss the more important aspiration of clarity and elegance in writing. I recall with some chagrin that the writing instructors of our daughter never gave them a template or suggestions about good writing, only a red pen for minor trespasses of form. It may be a way of trying to claim some authority, an air of knowing something that the common herd does not. I think that some of the concern with grammar bears class prejudice, even an attempt to claim superiority, based on the knowledge of grammar itself. It can be an attempt to create a barrier between the accepted and the proper v. the improper and the unacceptable.  

In seminary, I do recall that every instance of folks struggling with Greek and Hebrew was due to not knowing English grammar. Both of our daughters learned more grammar in Spanish than they did in their schooling in English class. My own distaste for mixing up who and whom derives more from people mistaking whom for when people say “between you and I” is in part grammatical but more that it is a mistaken attempt to sound more formal.  I wonder more about folks who try to freeze words and their meanings. Again, I fall into this at times. I do not like that the word, disinterested (impartial) has turned into uninterested. In his new book on changes in church history, Garry Wills reminds us that for some time Latin were considered not only the language of the Roman Catholic Church but all scholarship. Its grammar was considered the ultimate template. I suppose English, with its much less careful taxonomy of words was automatically suspect. I was amused to see a self-important scholar bragging that he knew that peruse meant to carefully examine a document. When he was reminded that dictionaries also permit its more common usage to scan something, he then declared that one and only one dictionary was honored by him. I was amused as the same author constantly disparages traditional church worship in favor of anything and everything considered new.

The older established denominations are struggling mightily with change. Seeing memberships tumble, perhaps we should grab at the hem of the garments of the new and seemingly popular. Perhaps the tide of change has turned against the older churches. I sense that we support change when we agree with it, and we oppose it when it violates our preferences. Complaints about hymns are almost always phrased as old hymns, but folks usually mean ones that they recall from childhood. (I have heard people complain about a “new” hymn that is 500 years old, but call How Great Thou Art an ancient song.(The version most people treasure dates from 1949).Change is with us always, whether in language or in church traditions. We hold it in tension with tradition itself, I suppose, at our healthiest. Otherwise, if we try to freeze time, we seem like King Canute trying to command the waves to stop. We do well to question change, question it, not the naive assumption that change for its own sake is always better. To try to freeze a language, to try to imprison church liturgy into the mirage of a missed past is to ignore the flow of life itself. Swept up in a tidal wave of change, we focus on the insignificant, since that we can grasp.

July 12 sermon notes Eph. 1, Mark 6:14

July 12-Eph. 1, Mark 6:14-

Holy and the unholy, the sacred and the profane Uzzah and the holiness of the ark Jesus radically changes the idea of holiness. The holy has an element of danger to it, as a holy dynamite What is not to be touched, now touches and is touched.Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return. ” ― Annie Dillard

God lavished us with gifts"In Christ" every experience is reframed, from our most bracing joys and cherished achievements to our besetting temptations, our most anguished regrets, and our most wounding losses. "In Christ" we are joined to the power and presence of God. "In Christ" we are knit to others . An "in Christ" community has to reckon with the fact that it will be perceived at times as more a threat than a blessing. John’s truth telling gets him killed. God's election of Christ, and God's choice for all of us, in him. Christ is the one who represents all humanity; thus in choosing Christ, God pursues humanity -- all of us -- with relentless love.   (Sally Brown) see Barth

Herod was really a tetrarch a ruler of a district, a fourth. He nagged an emperor so much to become a king that he was exiled to France. The conjugal activities of Herod and his wife are notorious. Already married, he married his niece, already married to one of her own uncles. She was married, but he never divorced her, so she lived as a bigamist.Salome, her daughter, is a little girl in the text.We hear nothing of the reaction of the guests at the dance, only Herod’s vow, one as full of death of Jephthah's vow years before.  The drive shafts of corrupted politics torque this birthday party. Everywhere greed and fear whisper: in Herod’s ear,John is in a dungeon.. When repentance is preached to this world’s princes, do not expect them to relinquish their power, however conflicted some may be. The righteous die for reasons both valorous and vapid. “[A]s the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time” (Ecclesiastes 9:12 KJV). The girl dances, not the siren of the imagination, but a girl. Herod’s banquet is only the first of two in Mark 6. Jesus hosts the second, in the middle of nowhere for thousands of nobodies with nothing to offer save five loaves and two fish. At that feast greed and fear have no place. There all are fed to the full, with leftovers beyond comprehension (6:30-44).clifton Black--Mark HoffmannI also love the observation in Mark 6:20 that Herod was "perplexed" by John. He liked to listen to John, but he didn't know what to make of him. Then he gets perplexed again at his birthday party.Banquet in the face of hard times. We get exercised over Grafton not having live music and open yet another bar t downtown, but seem blank in seeking new businesses here. Why were we not seeking the national cyber center instead of North St. louis? I never noticed before that Herod  is wondering if Jesus is the resurrected John the Baptist.John’s disciple shave the courage to bury him, but most of the disciples of Jesus abandon him.

Week of July 12 pts

Sunday-Ps.24- could be an environmental credo. It also links the temple with creation. Indeed some think the temple was designed to be a microcosm of creation. Where do you see th eking fo glory in the natural world?

Monday-When the truth hurts, we deny, deflect, and defend ourselves. Like a bug hiding from the light, we scurry to find the safety of dark corners so we can hide from the change to which we are being called. But even the darkness is as light to our Lord Jesus who followed us to the very depths of death itself that we might yet be freed to walk in the light. Lord Jesus, when the truth hurts and I try to justify my actions, help me yet to walk by faith. Help me to trust your word and face my sin, that I might honestly repent and live a new life. Thank you for coming to find me in the dark places that I hide and continually raising me from death into life. Amen.Krista Vingelis

  

Tuesday-God will bring about justice and peace. God will wipe away all tears and bring us to new life. And God will use us to share God's love, grace and mercy. God is turning the world through each person who says yes to God and trusts the Holy Spirit to guide them along the way. Lord, when words fail us, hear the prayers of our hearts. Call to us and guide us as you bring about justice, equality and peace throughout this world. Amen.Jennifer Beil

Wednesday-[W]hen they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of Separation between the Garden of the Church and the Wildernes of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall it selfe, removed the Candlestick, &c. and made his Garden a Wildernesse, as at this day.” ― Roger Williams,

Thursday-Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk.William Arthur Ward

Friday-“If you think you know something about God and describe it in words, the God you have described is not God. God is greater than your terminology. God is far greater than your language. God is inexpressible.” Meister Eckhart

Saturday Faith is a gift that requires continual care and renewal; it is not a possession we have in a fixed or permanent state. A Robinson

July 5-who do We think we are?

July 5 2 Cor 12, ps. 48 Mark 6

Who do you think you are? I don’t know if that gets said as much as it used to. On the other hand, many of us have no trouble judging others, and that would be an appropriate response. We have no trouble being moral arbiters for others. Some of us love to try to tell others what to do buoyed only by the gravitas of our opinion.

Who do  we think we are? People of prayer. Some people have trouble even beginning to pray as it can be an admission of need. Ps. 4 is a great prayer of someone in real distress for a multitude of woes. In pouring out one’s life to god, one can find peace to sleep in that relationship.

thorn in the flesh v, heavenly vision-weakness interpreted-Does God work only through strength? No, the cross is proof that god can work through anything .the cult of the self interpreted-Paul has been criticized and wounded. While he speaks of spiriutal heights, he says he learns more from the spiritual depths.New Pixar movie on the emotions within is called Inside Out.

supernatural interpreted-I like this rhetorical model, as it helps us in our continued struggle with the self, with our own self-regard. My generation felt as if it was always told that it did not measure up to a standard that seemed elusive. Coaches said things like give a 110%, We over-reacted and over-praised our children, and its symbol is the participation trophy so everyone's a winner.(I recall the gales of laughter from our younger daughter when she unearthed a video tape of her as an infant and a view of her older sister’s drawings as a typical 3 year old and her mother going on about her obvious artistic talent). Mister Rogers told children that they are special. Paul tries to acknowledge achievement without getting carried away into delirium, but he also help us face weakness and despairing thoughts, as neither define him. Neither is a permanent feature of his make-up. Our constant need to build ourselves up betrays a continued doubt about self-worth.Disconnected from achievement, self-promotion is an elaborate form of bragging.

He realizes that his relationship with God goes beyond his successes or his failures; it goes beyond his personal qualities, noble or ignoble.What Paul calls righteousness is the conviction that our relationship with God is healed, saved if you will, through Jesus Christ.

Mark 6 who does Jesus think he is? Jesus seems limited by their resistance, and he marvels at that unbelief. Where is our resistance-why our resistance? Jesus does not expect uniform acceptance. knocking the dust off their feet won’t hold or receive theirs, even dust, but not a grudge either. They were guaranteed nothing, but in doing their work they brought healing words and deeds to those who would receive them.

One of the reasons worship is indispensable is to get a potent reminder, just one hour a week, of the connection, the indissoluble connection God makes with us.I don;t know when Paul had his heavenly vision or how, but I would bet it emerged during prayer and was filled with images drawn from worship.Who do we think we are? People made in the image and likeness of God.It doe snto promise visionary experiences. it does not promise that we are rendered immune from troubles in life. It does mean that God holds us as infinitely valuable, so how should we regard not only ourselves but others?  Who do we think we are? People, not better or worse than others, but buoyed with the promise of healing and salvation, in this world and the next.

Devotional Pts. Week of July 5

Sunday Ps. 4-I was looking for some help with this psalm and Playstation 4 kept coming up on the internet. Well, Ps. 4 deserves a close look. I would encourage you to read the psalm, and then to rewrite it with your words and current experience and make it as personal as possible.

Monday-Americans want freedom from oppression--but what is it freedom for?  Frederick Buechner's words: "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meets." Like Alice in Wonderland, if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there! It's beyond work or job. What do you get up each day for?I am here on this earth to...." Pause.... Let your mission statement reflect a two-fold focus: What puts a sparkle in your eyes (deep gladness)? What pulls at your heartstrings? (some deep hunger of the world)? After silence, begin to write your free-flow response.... After about a page, stop; read what you've written... Then highlight luminous phrases that leap out at you. Condense the highlights to one vital sentence. (Keep others as objectives.)   Ira kent Groff

tuesday-Have you ever felt God calling or leading you to something that you weren't sure how you were going to do?  It can be terrifying when God calls us to come and follow. That's what God did to Ezekiel. "Stand up on your feet. I am sending you." But here's the interesting part. Ezekiel didn't stand on his feet by his own volition. The Spirit entered him and set him on his feet. I find courage and strength in knowing that even as God calls me, I do not go alone. God will always send the Spirit to lead me. Jennifer Beil

Wednesday-We find ourselves/when we lose ourselves./The wilderness and the wild./The Christ who gathers./The Christ who descends./The giving up of control./The smallness of humility./The largeness of the mystery./The immensity of seeking the sacred in everything./Never running from life/but plunging ourselves more wholly into her.We dance and we feel our lumbered bodies begin to move./We dance and we feel the heavy begin to take flight./We dance to find liberation.-Joel McKerrow

Thursday-“I wish you happiness now and whatever will bring happiness to you in the future.” If we said it to the sky, we would have to stop polluting, if we said it to the ponds and lakes and streams, we would have to stop using them as garbage dumps and sewers; if we said it to small children we would have to stop abusing them, even in the name of training; if we said it to people, we would have to stop stoking the fires of enmity around us. Beauty and human warmth would take root in us like a clear, hot June day. We would change.—from A Monastery Almanac by Joan Chittister (Benetvision)

Friday-“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

July 4-“Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author”   Thomas Jefferson

Review of Inside Out

We went to see Inside-Out, the new Pixar movie recently. What a lot of thought went into this animated feature. It opens up a portal into our own psyche in clever ways. Most of us have a hard time seeing into the inner world of others, and most of us have a difficult time peering into our own inner workings, so the movie offers  a view into the recesses of the self.

It takes a voyage into the mind of an 11 year old girl. As she grows and develops, her brain is pictured as as console area populated by five emotions:  joy, disgust, sadness, anger, and fear. Memory is featured as a vast dump where most things are forgotten, but some are stored, to be forgotten as time goes on. Some critical memories go into a long-term area and those coalesce into the personality traits and features important at the time. It gives short shrift to cognition, other than a literal train of thought, but the struggle to manage all the emotions looks a lot like Freud’s notion of the ego, the Greek word for the self, the  I. My guess would be that much of it went over the head of a young audience, but it surely gave the adults there something to work with.

It has some thought provoking ideas. What is the source of our impetuous decisions? Where does perseverance draw its strength? Where does empathy and compassion emerge? What happens if our feelings shut down?

Most notably it takes direct aim at the cult of cheerfulness and positive thinking. The other emotions try to keep sadness tightly confined. After all, her sadness does spread into memories.They treat her as someone to be segregated. Prof. Keltner, an advisor to the film has shown that emotional range is a vital learning in childhood. Further, research has indicated that pressuring someone toward happiness above all, or alone, is counter-productive. Childhood emotional intelligence goes into the recognition and balancing of different emotional states. they help us to handle, avoid, or interpret  different situations as they arise.

I was asked by someone who apparently wants art to present a didactic Christian viewpoint if the movie was properly Christian, whatever that means. Upon reflection, I should respond that the church takes us as we are, and if psychology and art help us to understand the inner workings of the self, all to the good. On the other hand, it could serve as a good template to talk about virtues and vices in a different, even compelling way. It could even serve as a way to discuss Paul’s treatment of the self in Romans 7. What would be the five important virtues at different times in life, or are they always the most important. How would you picture  critical vices at different stages in life? When she makes an impetuous decision, notice how both different emotions and a blindness to consequence reflect a full er view of sin in the tradition, not our easy acceptance fo sin as educators term it, merely bad choices. In other words, the movie could be an outright gift to christian education and youth programs with the patience to work through it with some care.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking character is the long forgotten imaginary friend. voiced by Richard Kind, It bears resemblance ot the forgotten toys of Toy Story 2, and the song by Sarah McGlaughlin. The imaginary friend is a composite of some of the early features of her life and leads her imagination to explore her hopes and aspirations as she is growing up. In Christian terms, the character propels her growth by an act of self-sacrifice.