Devotional Thoughts for Week of April 28

Sunday April 28-Ps. 148 ifts a week that started with Earth day.It could fit some of the natural images on our psalm windows here at First, Alton. Can you even imagine a more inclusive hymn of praise from all of creation? What element of creation draws you closer to the presence of God? what draws you away from a sense of the presence? J. Philip Newell is on Facebook and writes well of the Spirit of creation within the Celtic empahsis on traces of god in the natural world.

Monday-This is the first time since I have been here that the river is threatening.I feel for the people whose livelihood is inconvenienced and worse by the waters. At the same time, it is a fascinating thing to watch the waters rise in unfamiliar areas such as the park by the marina. i saw three heron ( or egret some long-legged bird, I know few proper names for birds)  and a fish there yesterday when I was reviewing this.

Tuesday-I was recently reminded that a sense of personal shame may be a more potent issue today than guilt.shame is the sense that something is wrong with or about me, independent of what I do. when we do wrong, we feel guilty, but shame seems to be a more pervasive sense of damaged sense of self. In worship, look at the declaration of pardon as healing a sense of shame as well. If God accepts us in the divine illumination, what need to we have ot hide from ourselves and others?

Wednesday-My calendar list this as a remembrance for the Holocaust. It may be related to yad vashem, that refers to Is. 56:5, where God’s people will be given a place and a name.One of the most-visited sites in Israel is the memorial to the 6 million names of those who perished in Hitler’s pogrom.One thing tha thelps me consider it is to look at those few “righteous gentioe” who braved the system to help those in desperate need.

Thursday is a national day of prayer-Ever since the revolution, assemblies have called for a day of prayer. Toward the end of his term President Reagan formalized this Thursday in May. Part of me militates against the state proposing a day of prayer, as I see it as outside its purview. On the other hand, it was a model for ancient israel, and it has been honored in american tradition. Nations are always in need of prayer.

Friday is called friendship day. I think it may be connected to church Women United. anyway, I applaud the idea. friends are often the crucible of the critical moments in our lives. Good marriages, I have noticed, often emerge from a friendship that turns into a romance. Who have been your good friends? What makes a good friend? How are friends similar and dissimilar to you?

Saturday-Why do some friendships seem to lose their potency over time? Some cherished friendships last a lifetime, but others seem more transient.Sometimes it comes from not tending them well, or sometimes, some unresolved hurt gets in the way. I am wondering about the ones that seem to fade away, almost beneath our radar, until one realizes that the old connection has withered.Do you think a cause is underneath it? Now consider the hymn, What a Friend We Have for some spiritual clues.

Column on Dealing with Crime Locally

UCM, United Congregations of Metro East, is holding a workshop the first Saturday in May. It deals with a difficult topic, the role of churches in helping released prisoners re-enter society. As always with this group, to uses the faith as a springboard to address social ills and matters of justice. Its main focus has been race relations, development, and the environment.

Churches are geared to acts of charity, called service or mission, in religious parlance. Charity provides help for basic human needs on an individual, piecemeal basis. Its failing is that charity is often a Band-Aid on a weeping wound. It becomes part of the patchwork of living day to day, but charity does not address a system that seems intent on producing so much difficulty. Justice moves in a social dimension, and it brings to light inequities in the structures and systems of how we operate. UCM is designed to hit nerves.

I can think of few areas that demonstrate its moral courage as much as this one. As their material suggests, most of us prize the criminal justice system because it punishes offenders. We see the threat of punishment as a deterrent against vicious behavior. For instance, I have no trouble with longer sentences for those convicted of violent crime or the use of a gun in a crime. (Let me guess, that could be the next frontier for the gun lobby, and they will ask for shorter sentences for those who use guns). In so many ways, we have given up on rehabilitation as a goal of the criminal justice system. UCM calls us back toward its consideration and implementation. In a struggling rust belt economy in the doldrums, how do we learn to match an opportunity for gainful work to offenders?

In its stead, UCM is proposing a model of restorative justice. This covers a lot of territory, but it often means looking to heal the breach in a society caused by crime. Some emphasize the victims of crime being restored form their losses, or receiving aid in coming to terms with the impact of a crime. Here, UCM is interested in helping to restore the offender to a new and secure place to start again in society. Jesus used visiting the prisoner as a model of charity in Mt. 25, but here we are extending the reach of the clarion call of the Old Testament for justice.

I struggle with the sheer size of the number of prisoners in this country, especially compared to other nations. One reason is our use of the drug laws to define drug use as criminal instead of the public health crisis it portends. Yes, I do realize that drug use can lead to crime to fuel the addiction, but we have a large number of people imprisoned for mere possession. Prisons are expensive, but so is addiction treatment. As a society, which path shall we continue to choose?

Further, since we closed down large mental health facilities, we have been negligent in creating a system of smaller in-house treatment programs for the mentally ill. Our biggest initial mental health treatment facilities in this country are jails. Hebrew ethics were always concerned with the vulnerable, the least of these: the widow, orphan, and sojourner in a society without a social safety net. In our time, I would certainly place the mentally ill in that category.

In biblical terms, released prisoners are lepers, untouchables. The clarion call of Jesus is toward healing, yes even those now chained ot the margins of society. I am in awe of the willingness of UCM to address the issue and to confront the churches, and our communities, with it.

week of April 21 Devotional thoughts

April 21 Sunday-Ps, 23 is perhaps the best-known, best loved psalm. Let me look at the issue of “preparing a table in the presence of my enemies.” Even the best among us have enemies. if that is too stark, make the enemies the terrors that face us, cancer, dread, and the like. I love the idea of being at table with the enemy, maybe to negotiate, but maybe to lord it over the enemy at the head of the table.

Earth Day is a great example of the world preaching the gospel to the church. We have such vast resources on the care of creation and remained silent for far too long. Perhaps one of the best offerings of the church to this day is to use the word, creation, instead of the environment.What parts of creation do you most and least prize? How does the deep connections of creation become clear to you?

Tuesday Can we be too tightly bonded in family? If family bonds inhibit the growth and  development of a member, yes. If we stifle someone in the name of family harmony, yes.We all live on a tightrope of being permeable to outside influences and still being our own self. In systems theory, we hear of someone being differentiated enough to be able to stand on their own two feet, yet capable of staying engaged with others.

Wednesday-My calendar cites this day for the Armenian genocide.Hitler famously said that he would get away with mass murder for who remembered the Armenians? The Ottoman Turks killed many, and are quite closed about even mentioning the issue in diplomatic circles even today.As I write this, we are stunned by the apparent bombing in Boston after the marathon. We accept large losses, as it is so hard to wrap our hearts and minds around them; so we grow numb.

Thursday-I have some friends who frequently send me links to material on the computer. Sometimes, I find it annoying, but other times I am touched that they would be to thoughtful enough to think of me when they are reading an article. It’s  an extension of a note that says that I thought this may interest you. On Facebook, people post all sorts of sensitive, encouraging, positive slogans. What sort of material do you tend to send friends?

Friday-Our Wednesday morning class is looking at wisdom literature as a guide toward ethics.Wisdom seems to be predicated on the notion that we can discern patterns in God’s creation that can lead to better chances for happiness and fulfillment. In other words, wisdom merges the secular and the sacred into a path for a path, or paths, to making human life better through reflected experience.

Saturday-What an important resource energy is.I was talking with someone wise recently who divided people into energy leeches and energy producers.In a couple, I think tha tthe energy in the relationship goes back and forth, but I like to think tha tboth get recharged in each other’s presence. Perhaps we could look at prayer as a source for divine energy that can suffuse us in various prayer postures.

Sermon Notes 4/21 Acts (:36-41, Rev. 7:9-17

pril 21 Acts 9:36-41,Rev.7:9-17

Some of us think of the little girl in bewitched when you hear the name Tabitha. Tabitha or Dorcas is gazelle in 2 languages. Life was fleeting for her, just like a gazelle.This ancient port city is within Tel Aviv now. In many cultures, it is a symbol for grace, for beauty, for compassion.I love this resurrection.story. It is such a story of an element of grief, the keepsake. Keepsakes are tangible reminders of a person, and they often remind us of an attribute of the person. Keepsakes are the source of stories about a person. I find a distinction between a keepsake and a shrine. A shrine tries to freeze life into the moment of a death, where things are stopped to be the same, before the death. Instead, a keepsake brings our continuing bonds with a loved one forward into our lives. A keepsake keeps a life present for us,but a shrine is more of a mausoleum, a Taj Mahal to death.. This little story stands against the easy stereotype that women’s lives were not considered important in ancient times. This good and kind woman, this doubly named woman is raised from the dead.during the visitation in a funeral home, we collect keepsake stories that define a love done. They may often point to a particular act of kindness.

I am glad we are reading some hymns from Revelation in this Eastertide. This is as good a song about heaven as I can find in the bible. It is such a shame that we have permitted our disposal of this book to be placed in the hands of fortune tellers  and religious quacks. We deprive ourselves of its riches. The primary locus in speaking of heaven is being in the presence of God.Let’s be clear. At the earthly level most of these in heaven were nobodies; some were martyred for their faith. To paraphrase Lincoln, history would little note nor long remember them. In the eyes of god, they are royalty; they hold victory in their hands. At one level they are mouldering in the grave, but in heaven they are in the midst of the very fount of life.Please recognize the vast sum of them, the uncounted multitude.

Notice that it does not erase or deny the troubles and pains of this life. It does imagine that those tears will be dried.Notice the  literary move of making the sacrificial, slain little lamb the shepherd here.It does imagine a place where hunger and thirst are no longer an issue. A place where body and spirit are refreshed together. S hould we refer to ourselves as keepsakes in heaven?

Of lambs and shepherds-We may well be both at the same time. We care for others and take care of others. We do well to be careful not to try to shepherd adults when they are doing fine on their own. That’s a good definition of controlling, trying to shepherd someone who is fully capable of being a shepherd. At times, we need to be lambs, to receive care, protection, and comfort. Sometimes our greatest wisdom is learning to accept that we are in the lamblike position, especially as we grow frail and find it very hard to come to grips ws with decline.

Lately, i have mentioned at funerals that we can hope to grow into our eulogies. It is a marvel to hear stories of kindnesses of which we were unaware at funeral visitations; we get a fuller picture of someone.Perhaps one of our heavenly rewards is to see those acts of kindness displayed and treasured for all to see and appreciate.

Rev. 21:1-6 Notes

21:1-6  Look at the density of OT references here.Pay attention to its rummaging through the Isaiah corpus for images ( at least in 25, 65, 55 60 and 43 for starters). 

Are the former things the former evil in Isaiah?  Could it be death itself, with death now passing away? 

Again, this may be a good time to look at the mythic meaning fo the sea.  If one is of a scientific bent, how could we, should we speak of this in terms of science or are we pushed to metaphor here?

The holy city is an anti-Babylon. It is probably anti-Roma as well.  The offerings of Babylon and the new Jerusalem are rather different, no? Are there sources of different types of hope as well? 

Is new heaven an image of annihilation or transformation or utter novelty? The city image deserves some treatment perhaps. We are led to the new temple of Ezekiel starting at  40-or the recently read Is. 65:17-25.(Could the worship been connected to the month of AV and its consideration of the destruction of the temple, especially as this was probably written within a generation of Roman destruction?

Now go a bit further and we encounter the lake of sulfur and fire. How many sermons on Hell, how many studies on Hell have we done?

Look at what comes for free here, without price, without cost. God’s presence with us and the healthy clean waters v. the polluted waters of a port city.

Rev. 7:9-17 notes

7:  9-17        Boring calls this section the church triumphant. some read this as a peaceful army. Do we need to bring in the first part? Here we are back to the lamb and its emphasis on blood. Boring asserts that it is the blood as life (Levitcus) that is emphasized more than the shedding of blood per se as a magical element.(Think both Passion of the Christ and “gospel” hymns). One could play with a variety of reasons the folks wear white robes, but it is incontestable that they are martyrs in God’s perspective now.Notice the lamb transmuted into shepherd work here.

144,00 invites discussion of the JW movement. Do you detect an anti-Judaism cast or supersessionism in the number or using 12 as an expansive number? Recently a book came out demonstrating that claims of Christian martyrs under constant persecution is a huge exaggeration.  Greg Carey asks-”who will bear faithful lam-like practices  in a society of Beast-ly practices?”

One could also do a martyr’s mirror sermon of contemporary struggles in the faith.

One could do a sophisticated sermon on secular culture and religious values.

One could go further and speak on how secular society preaches the gospel to the church inits forms of witness.

With so many legal shows and procedurals, the idea of witness could be explored in some interesting ways, or one could go to social psychology and the fragility fo the accuracy of our witness.

Who can stand asks the sixth seal? The people of God can comes the answer in this salvation interlude. No tribulation (thlipsis) will impede their victory. Note well that the church is undergoing suffering and trial, not being removed from it.

The Southern church called dispensational theology a heresy. I am mystified by our continued kindness toward it in our biblical interpretation. On JWs and the 144,00 it is somehow linked with this idea of a multitude. Perhaps this multiple of 12 deals with the tribes of Israel and maybe the church as a large unit, a large remnant if you will within the multitude.

Presence/tenting/tabernacling here may refer to feast of Tabernacles and then to transfiguration??) and/or Palm Sunday. this is the word used to refer to the Logos dwelling with us in John 1.

Are these sealed ones baptized? Are the robes baptismal robes?

Sermon Notes Ps. 30, Rev. 5:11-14, Acts 9, Jn. 21:1-19

In prayer on a Sunday, the visionary of Revelation has access to a view of the throne room of God. His eye lights on  of all things, a lamb. More surprising, this odd Lamb is in the center of the throne room, not only a sacrificial lamb, a slaughtered lamb- seven attributes are given it.not only that, it is Mary’s little lamb. Even in the precincts of heaven, God honors the small. (Gandalf quote: “  Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay… small acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? That’s because I am afraid and it gives me courage.” CS Lewis could never quite get this clear, for his Narnia image is of a great lion. Instead of the power of brute force, we encounter here the power of a choir. What a mixed choir it is, but part of it has martyrs in it. Suffering and death do not ge the last words for us. they look like victims, but now in God’s embrace they are singing in a victory choir.

In that light, I love the beach barbeque scene. At one level, we are in the presence of God in heaven, in a world we can but glimpse and never capture. At another level, the Risen Jesus, symbolized by the lamb in the vision is on the beach on the lake that dominates his home region. While the disciples are out at work, Jesus is cooking. First, the cooking bespeaks the importance of life here physically, the need to make a living and to eat. Second, I suspect that the 153 fish is the size of John’s church perhaps, and that means this church has more members than a church in John’s community.. Third, it is to emphasize that the resurrection has a body and soul component.this sort of physical activity distinguished a presence from a ghost, a mere figment. I have a fourth, but first.

   Ps 30 is a hymn to moving from death to life. Yes it applies to a healing, but also to the great healing of moving from tomb to womb. We are not forever consigned to sadness, grief, and desolation. Yes, we admit that we are subject to it. It does us no earthly good to deny it, to not recognize it. With loss, we lived poised between death and life. Yes bereavement is part of loss. We do not  have to live in grief forever. In time we will be able to dance again.

   Paul’s Easter life  is new spiritual insight. Look how Ananias offers him the gift of life as did Jesus. Notice it too is connected to forgiveness. In Paul's case, the physical scales fall from his eyes. It is doubly important for he could not see the vitality of the new Christian movement but he had an encounter with the holy and his eyes could not bear it, blinded by the light as Springsteen sings. Ananias is extraordinary because he has forgiven this persecutor of the faith, even though he had to be persuaded in his vision.. Paul was on the road to maybe capture and kill ananias.By the way, it is possible that the same street is still present in Damscus after ll these years and ruins east -west.

   We are in the season of Easter light in the church.All of of readings open up into a broader wider world. The divine level collides with the everyday level in forgiveness. Again, in this extra chapter, John’s gospel stresses forgiveness. Jesus has not forgotten what Peter has done, as the triple question is no accident. Jesus is willing to give him not only an extra chance but offers him the trust of leadership.Oh yeah, the fourth part of the beach barbeque. Jesus prepares a charcoal fire, and the only place we find this word in the NT is the fire where peter warms himself as he denies Jesus. Jesus forgives n spite of remembering.