Devotional Pts for Week of May 1

Sunday-Ps. 67-Last week we read a psalm of praise form all of creation. This week, we read of all the nations praising god  for the resources of the earth itself. Then and now, it is a bold prayer for god to be praised when we do not have one religion. It makes universal part of the Aaronic blessing. It shows a god always at work for justice and guidance toward it. Where have we achieved justice? where do we fall short?

Monday-"God does not call us to one particular path that we scrutinize and discover. God calls us to the fullness of living which can be manifested in a multitude of ways."
--- Christine Valters Paintner,

Tuesday-The act of praise is the antidote to the poison of that lie which infects every aspect of life. Praise, at least for a few moments, is the act of putting our true relationship with God back in place. It is rejecting the big lie. We put ourselves aside and stand before the great unknowable mystery of existence and acknowledge that God is God and we're not. It's not an easy thing to do because our ego still so easily gets in the way again as we congratulate ourselves on our lovely praising. True praise is an act of pure humility--of letting go of our self-centered narcissism and turning wholeheartedly to God. Perhaps in those rare moments of true praise we also discover "God's saving power among all nations"--when we turn from the big lie that we ourselves are God and instead acknowledge and revel in the good news that God is God and the source of our life with its grace and blessings. 

Wednesday-the doing is always more complicated than it first appears. Are there things we're not supposed to do, or do we just not feel like it? Is it too intimidating or boring or "beneath us?" Even after the vision, Paul still had to "conclude"--that is, figure out--what exactly he was supposed to do. So what might God be forbidding us to do or undertake today? Who should we NOT talk to? What should we NOT do so we are ready for the very thing that God has in mind for us down the road? And how do we know. Lord, open our eyes, minds and hearts to hear both the dos and the don'ts that you speak to us, and give us the wisdom to come to the intended conclusions. Amen. Tim Kellgren

Thursday-so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence.But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remembered now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive.”Hannah Coulter

Friday-“There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.” ― John Calvin

Saturday- As we age, we are not losing days to the past; the future comes to us every day as a new gift. Mirolsav Volf

Sermon Notes Rev. 21, 22, John 5

May 1 Rev. 21, 22, John 5  Acts 16

Water pervades our stories. For ages water has been a symbol in religious rites and sites. .Act 16:9 water good for the process of using dye and Lycus was the river-charmed not to flood-symbol of fertility. So a woman is leading a group here in those far away days.road to wellville-the spa waters- dead sea and cosmetic-Lourdes agents of healing of body mind and soul.

John 5 features healing waters.do you want to be made well?-that haunting question hovered over the waters as much as the alleged stirring of the waters by the wings of a passing angel (see TT article on water in John)Sometimes the answer is no. I think marital therapy is obstructed by this question and its answer. Some folks only know disharmony. Some folks  don't want harmony-they want control-some folks want to complain about a loved one. This is a good set of pictures for a guided meditation.No one gets me there in time. Jesus in giving him mobility gives him agency.All of us are caught between individual responsibility and social forces. Social forces are a powerful deterrent to claiming even a share of responsibility for one’s own life. At the same time, everybody needs a helping hand at one time or another.

Healings may happen, but we are still mortal. So,  Rev. 21-22:5 In part this is a vision of cosmic healing.For a vision we consider heavenly, it is certainly rooted in a transformation of this world. it is an emblem of salvation as security in the presence of God.this is safe space, open space, with the gates open, for what is left to fear, to be protected from? I never would have imagined that americans would be herded like cattle for security profiles to get on an airplane.

As the end of the book of Zechariah John  sees a world where the secular and the sacred are merged, and all is holy. It is the same idea as this city being transfigured into a giant temple Our old sights of heaven with Pearly gates and jeweled foundation walls are in our reading but they are drawn from the tabernacle and temple imagery. Again, its picture of heaven is being connected to the presence of God. How does one describe  the furniture for the divine, the ambience of divinity.It takes images from the Old testament and expands them, builds on them. the new Jerusalem is a giant temple. It dwarfs the restored temple and city of Ezekiel.Here we are reintroduced to the great sacred river of life.In the second creation account in Gen. 2 the sacred river is the source of all the waters in the area.Joel and Zech refer to sacred waters as well. For us with the Mississippi flowing below, this should be easy.Father Marquette and the river-Daniel  Boone crossed this river- Abraham Lincoln travelled on it. Mark Twain (worked with Captain Klinefelter-ch. 19 life on the Mississippi) worked on a steamboat-Nations built around rivers considered them as sacred. In Ezekiel the river’s tree lined banks heal Israel, but here they heal the nations. It imagines God’s new world as a place of healing. It is a place of healing not only for individual but collective wounds. (It is  a world made sacred for all.There the memories of war could be healed, of assassination of our nation’s leaders, of 9/11 and the pain we have inflicted on others as well.salvation includes safe space, elbow room, expansiveness-larger than similar material in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the new city/temple is 1000 times larger than Ezekiel’s already expansive vision.-In god’s world we have plenty of room, plenty of peace, plenty of God.

Sermon Notes Acts 11, Rev. 21 with a glance at Ps 148 and John 13

As we age we turn to the mirage of t. When we became a nation, voting was left to males  with property. Blacks were able to vote after the Civil War but southern states made it impossible. Women only received the national right in 1920 after  years of struggle. We had a program in schools of Americanization  In the 1920s a state passed a law forbidding parochial schools-German street signs were removed in Cincinnati-Back when I was born we just ruled on Brown v. Bd; women were not ordained to pastorates in the church.

The notion of a congregation or a community is one of a big family, no insiders, nor outsiders.Our denomination has been struggling with the issues of homosexuality since I was in college. This passage pushed me to consider if I was holding on to prejudice. God’s way seems to be one of knocking down walls of division and separation.fair percentage of our citizens in 2015 wonder if Muslims are part of the national fabric.

.Acts 11,All of his life Peter knew that his people were God’s chosen people. He may have been vaguely aware that some of the bible mentioned an opening to the Gentiles, the other nations. To his shock he was realizing that prophecy was actual in his lifetime, in this particular place. It was less that he had been wrong but more  that he saw things in a new way.Not only did he have a vision he is careful to catalog his experience with these new converts.Few images capture better the grand open space of salvation better than this image of the walls being torn down between people. I wonder why it was a vision. did he need to move beyond rational persuasion?In our time we are so taken with emphasizing the particular that we are leery of approaching general  even universal themes, but does not the notion of all being children of god have real resonance? We place so many walls, so many barriers between us.Both the previous scene in Acts 10 and Peter’s present speech mention “acceptance.” In Acts 10 God “accepts” all who fear God and work justice; here the Gentiles’ receive or “accept” the word of God. The same Greek root is used in both instances. “who am I to hinder god? (In Gk. this is a done deal, I cannot stand in the way of a divine decision.(Is word-rhema=to promises here?)

Transformation continues in the apocalyptic reading. John loves this passage so much that is a repeat from our reading in chapter 7. We get to talk this morning about the destination of resurrection: heaven.I am among those who stress resurrection life in the present so much that I am in danger of pushing heaven to the side.We live in a time of credulity about near death experiences, but we do not examine biblical images of heaven with much care. In part it is the Bible’s reticence to give much information,but we do get a few here toward the end of this revelatory set of visions.direct quote from Isaiah water of life again-alpha and omega-see I am making all things new. It imagines an end to the tension between God’s order and natural disorder.It imagines a  world where threat is gone. It imagines that the Lord’s prayer becomes fullness-on earth as it is in heaven-the barrier between and earth and heaven-the chasm between us and God is bridged and then filled.God pitches a tent with us, chooses to dwell with us in the big tent.This open-hearted God seems at cross purposes with the violence imagined earlier in the book.When we act as the good beloved community, we get a glimpse of the way god wants the world to look.

earth day column

Earth Day is the 22^nd, but its celebration moves into weekends. I noticed a number of churches doing Earth Day events in its time frame. Earth day festivals frame the weekends around it.

My primary environmental concern remains pollution. Most of the miners could not play with their children due to “black lung.” When I was growing up in Western Pennsylvania, we had “sulfur creeks’ running red. Lake Erie was considered dead. I didn’t know of the book, but I was aware that Silent spring knew that we were killing birds. The great symbolic moment for me was the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland catching fire.

Tim, a resident genius in one of our Bible studies, notes that ecology has become a secular religion for some. Personally, I have little patience for trying to recreate ancient rituals for Mother Nature and the flow of the seasons. On the other hand, if this movement has raised the issue of creation to the forefront of concerns, then Christian churches owe them a debt of gratitude. If they have moved us to see the creation as sacred, then they have altered the calculus we use to determine what we should or should not do with environmental impact.

My religious orientation gives a particular set of concerns to environmental issues. First and foremost, Christians speak of Creation. The National Council of Churches asks if we have become “un-Creators” by placing the Earth in jeopardy.

Second, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew calls pollution a sin as a crime against the natural world. God labored and labors long and well to help sustain this world. To use that religious language allows us to engage in ethical discussion in ways not usually available to us.

Perhaps the primary virtue of the Council of Churches statement on the environment is humility. I would extend their point. We need humility in discussing the environment. The right would do well to stop acting as if they understand science better than scientists. The left would do well to stop its preening as if it grasps the science only because scientists agree with their concerns about the environment. As limited beings, do we have the capacity, let alone the wisdom, to think that we can control the complexity of ecology and climate?

My own Reformed tradition has long advocated frugality and simplicity of life. It is the opposite of prodigal waste of resources. My mother was a Depression era person. From it, she drew a fundamental rule in our household: don’t waste.

Many people look toward dominion in Genesis as a command of power over, but it seems to have more of a shepherding, taking care of, being responsible for creation.  To subdue the earth is a tougher one, as it does have the sense of power over. The Bible is not romantic about nature: it is not all about pretty sunsets. It sees nature as a powerful force that does get out of balance, and it does threaten human life. Nature too is imagined to be transformed at some point. At the same time, it sees us as part of the natural order. Again in Genesis it cannot be an accident that Adam’s name is a play on adamah, soil, to get at our connection with nature.

The preamble to the Constitution speaks of ourselves and our posterity. The conservation movement has long sought to protect nature as a legacy for those who follow us. We do not live for ourselves; we do not live for the present moment alone. We seek to provide a legacy. What more vital legacy can we offer than a safer, more secure natural world? What way could we better respect the work of the Creator than by being caretakers of this precious planet?

Devotional Points for week of April 24

Sunday-Ps.148 is perfect for Earth Day weekend as part t of the concluding set of praise in the psalter. This time, it brings together all of creation in praise of God in its very pulsing life. We are part of a natural choir.

Monday-“At the root of humility is the Greek word humus, which means ‘earth’ or ‘earthiness’ – the earth that God made and called good, the earth from which God fashioned us.  Humility is the fundamental recognition that we each draw our life and breath from the same source – the God who made us and calls us beloved.” --- Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Tuesday-Hymn-Borning cry-To the best of my knowledge, this is the only hymn in our hymnals in which God sings to God's children. It has become treasured by so many because it gives a powerful message of God's unconditional promise to be with us from birth to death and all that comes in between. (I personally love that part about wandering where demons dwell.) It is sung at baptisms, growing up times, marriages, and yes, finally at death. God Pause

Wednesday-“As we become conscious of our metaphors for God, we learn which ones are life-giving for us, and which ones might be limiting or constricting. At different points along our journey, our images of God grow and change as we do.”
--- Christine Valters Paintner,

hursday-“It is not our memories but the person we have become because of those experiences that we should treasure. This is the lesson these keepsakes teach us when we sort them. The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.” - “It is not memories but the person we have become because of those past experiences that we should treasure. This is the lesson these keepsakes teach us when we sort them. The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not the person we were in the past. P.118” ― Marie Kondō, 

Friday-May we realize that they live not for us alone, but for themselves and for Thee and that they love the sweetness of life even as we, and serve Thee better in their place than we in ours. For those, O Lord, the humble beasts, that bear with us the burden and heat of day … and for the wild creatures, whom Thou hast made wise, strong, and beautiful, we supplicate for them Thy great tenderness of heart, for Thou hast promised to save both man and beast, and great is Thy loving kindness, O Master, Saviour of the world.― Patricia K Tull, 

Saturday-The room of love is another world. You go there wearing no watch, watching no clock. It is the world without end, so small that two people can hold it in their arms, and yet it is bigger than worlds on worlds, for it contains the longing of all things to be together, and to be at rest together. You come together to the day's end, weary and sore, troubled and afraid. You take it all into your arms, it goes away and there you are where giving and taking are the same, and you live a little while entirely in a gift. The words have all been said, all permissions given, and you are free in the place that is the two of you together. What could be more heavenly than to have desire and satisfaction in the same room?" From Hannah Coulter

Sermon Notes Acts 9:36, Rev. 7

April 17- The Wednesday morning class has been going through the book of Acts word by word, sentence by sentence. Tabitha  or Dorcas, gazelle, is what we could call  a saint, a model Christian, a good Christian woman. Like grieving people, they want to share stories about her. They cluth to keepsakes she made for them.256) Keepsakes are important. In Acts 9, the people show the things that Tabitha made for them. They don't have to be important or valuable in money. They are little sacramental tangible items that connect us to the person who has died.they are small incarnations of love.  What are some keepsakes that mean the most to you? Did arguments ensue over who would get certain keepsakes? Why do you prize certain keepsakes? Do they pick up an interest, a quality of your loved one? I saw a piece of Tim Allen's sitcom Home Improvement where Ernest Borgnine plays a widower who spoke of arguing with his wife over some ugly knickknacks she kept on the kitchen counter .He hid them, and she put them back. Did you get rid of them when she died? "No, you don't have to understand a woman, all you have to do is love her", he said in bemused resignation. We may feel pressure to get rid of belongings quickly after a death. After all, some items may be of real value to different people in your circle. While you are having the sale, you may also note that you do not want to part with some things, so keep them. In the movie, the Descendants, we see a family faced with continuing shocks as they come to grips with the coma of a wife and mother. A yellow blanket is over her the last time the family sees her to say goodbye in the hospital. In a coda, the ten year old daughter is watching TV with the blanket. She is joined  by her father and then her angry teen sister. They all share the blanket and the 2 bowls of different ice cream. 

The Bible is replete with the keepsake s of spiritual images. Here we get a classic reversal.  For Revelation, a dramatic new Exodus is being undertaken not in Egypt but in the heart of the Roman Empire. (See working Prescher here).  Led by the Shepherd-Lamb Jesus, God calls Christians to “come out” of Rome (Revelation 18:4), in the same way that the Israelites came out of Egypt.People who belong to the lamb’s multitude are those who have come out of the great thlipsis (“tribulation”). The “tribulation”  of Revelation’s audience was not state-sponsored persecution but rather the social, economic, and religious troubles facing the communities.Like a shepherd, God tenderly cares for the people -- a wonderful image for Good Shepherd Sunday. The verb “shelter”  has  the sense of God’s radiant presence as a canopy or  tent over us (see Ezekiel 37:27). Isaiah 49:10, the call to return home from exile: God’s people will not hunger or thirst on their journey through the wilderness, nor will any scorching wind or sun touch them (Revelation 7:16,).Now the Lamb Jesus now becomes also the shepherd, tending the flock, leading people to springs of water, and wiping away all their tears (a quote from Isaiah 25:8). Led by their Shepherd-Lamb, God’s redeemed people will come through the tribulation into God’s new Promised Land. We enter  the uncharted future with our memories. They may be reformulated and softened. In God’s stereoscopic view, our harsh memories can transform into agents of good. What looks like tribulation is turned into unanticipated joys.God hold our lives as keepsakes in the divine memory.

column on public v. private

When I go to our regional church gatherings, my mind tends to wander. This time, it settled on the decline of the public sphere as compared to the private sphere. I keep hearing about how a person from business is well-suited to the political arena. Years ago, Graham Allison noted that private and public administration are alike in all unimportant respects. The complexity and number of stakeholders alone in the public sphere, the public interest instead of profit combine to make it a different, daunting difference.

The inability of Springfield to arrive at a budget is illustrative of the issue. Private groups have tried to raise some money to deal with the ankle breaking hazard that mark the Gordon Moore tennis courts, when the state’s budget woes stopped a major grant in its tracks. We seem to have little trouble financing wars, but other public needs go begging. Indeed, we seem to wish to rely on private charity instead of making programs of public justice that could eliminate the need for private charity, such as the venerable Social Security program. St Louis has many ruined husks of structures. At the same time, it was willing to help raise one billion dollars for a football stadium.

We seem to expect governmental programs to be poorly run. We also seem to ignore when private institutions are poorly run. I have heard almost no complaint about the recent spate of enormous fines being paid by banks for bringing to the entire economy to its knees in 2008.

The public space used to be an emblem of pride. Look at the quality of older governmental structures, be it city halls, county courthouses, or other civic ventures. Astounding public parks were created, be it Rock Springs Park in Alton or the magnificence of Forest Park and its institutions across the river. We are all witnesses to a concerted effort to “privatize” public life, in education for instance.  One of the many things I admire of the WWII generation was its concern with institution building.

I am not sure if cyberspace is a public sphere or a mere aggregation of private expression. Its lack of civility would make me think that it lacks the courtesy the public sphere requires to mediate and lessen divisions. “Enclave culture” talks about diversity, but its structural response is the creation of separate groupings that emphasize being against other grouping more than being for a particular grouping: what one is not more than what we are. The focus on the private seems to have a correlative increase in complaining and blame. As it grows, it has the corresponding, surprising, decline of taking personal responsibility for one’s actions.

We see it in churches constantly. We bring a market orientation to worship: what does it do for me? We speak of mere preferences as principles. Religious denominations lose members, and folks are more willing to shop for churches than they once were. One hears about being spiritual but not religious quite frequently. It is as if the very notion of an organization has been rendered suspect.

We live in tension between two poles. One is cohesion, togetherness, centripetal forces. The other is the individual, fission, centrifugal forces. Some years ago, the sociologist Robert Putnam wrote Bowling Alone. He spoke of the collapse of community in the face of public participation in political and social life declining in area after area, from voting to membership in groups such as Rotary. Part of it is the amount of hours we work and the many demands placed on us. Oscar Wilde said that “the trouble of socialism is that it took up too many evenings.” It may well be time for us to take some evenings to get clarity on the weights of the public and private sphere in this new century.