Devotional Points Week of Aug. 25

Sunday- I like Ps. 71 as it is from the pen of someone who has grown older.We just started the first of a series at a local assisted living center, and this was our first psalm. We wanted to show that the Bible speaks directly to growing older. I love itws plea that god remain faithful from birth to old age and grey hair.It uses the image of refuge repeatedly. Where are refuges for us as we age? Where are our refuges vulnerable? The psalm closes with a powerful evocation to continue to praise the work of god no matter our age, an excellent antidote to the complaints that dog us.

Monday-It always seems a bit of a struggle to return from vacation.I have a friend who get depressed when he starts work right away upon returning. I urge him to shorten vacation by a day away and add it to home as a transition. How long does it take you to feel as if you are on vacation?What methods do you use to get back in the swing of things?

Tuesday-I continue to work on the book of the 12/Minor Prophets (Hosea-Malachi).As I was reviewing some material, it struck me that they fit our time well as they face a difficult reality squarely, yet they sometimes paint a hopeful picture for th e future. Biblical material does point at change, or why else could it possibly stress repentance, doing a turn-around of one’s actions and attitudes?

Wednesday-My next project is projected to be a look at the movies and themes of faith and spiritual life. while I love movies  personally, they are one of the few gateways that allow conversations across the divides that we so stress in our time. What are your favorite movies? Do you prefer drama, action, comedy? What movies have touched you at a spiritual level? Do certain scenes stand out or the entire film?

Thursday-Intimacy has become associated almost solely with physical activity. Yet it sense of closeness can be mental, emotional, and spiritual of course. a friend speaks of cooking together as an intimate activity as it conjures up an image  of domesticity.we speak of wanting to feel close to God, near to god, but I do not hear intimacy with God very often.when do you feel close to god, and when do you feel that God is distant or that you are distant from god?

Friday-We thought of buying an expensive DVD package on boundaries for the presbytery. on boundaries. this is difficult terrain to master. On one hand, we cannot act as if we are sealed off from others, but on the other hand too permeable a boundary can threaten our sense of self and ts responsibilities. Boundaries help us to decide wha tis our concern or not, what is our business or not. Where are your boundaries healthy and defined and where do they need some work?

Saturday-NPR is running a series on sacred music. A nun was just on speaking of our distrust of silence and how chanting releases some of the walls against our very selves we set up.She argued that sophisticated sacred music takes its listeners seriously and respectfully. Do you listen to sacred music as recreation? For me secular music is spiritually moving and evocative. Do any artists consistently m put you in a p spiritual frame fo mind?

Sermon Notes Aug. 25 Heb. 12, Ps. 71, L. 13

August 25 Sermon Notes

I return from  a brief sabbath of vacation for  a reading on sabbath on the Christian sabbath day.healing on sabbath-The command on the sabbath is clear:no work. Interpretation is still required-what is work? Of all things, it was disputed in the time of Jesus if a healing should occur on the Sabbath as it changed the course of nature. the consensus opinion seemed to be that emergency healing was fine, but if something could wait, why not wait a day? Jesus here takes a more human approach and operates from the perspective of the one suffering. Jesus puts a high value on healing of human beings. Look at the time frame as well. Seven days a week, Sabbath included, this woman suffered for 18 years, around 900 Sabbaths. She deserves sabbath rest from her suffering.

Ps 71 deals with the life cycle. It starts with seeing God at helping to deliver a child at birth, just like Bentley, and closes with images of active aging, even when strength is spent. -In some ways the bible is a book for the young. After all, jesus dies around 30.I was first hit with this psalm in a new key when I read it for a nursing home years ago and saw that it is from the perspective of someone growing older.. I was getting some grey in my beard and told them that it was the root sense of aging in Hebrew, Notice how this psalm speaks of refuge. at tis best the church is a place of refuge for our doubts and fears, a place, maybe the only place, where we get o to voice our best hopes.

Baptism-It is my prayer that this child not be trained to enter into a church filled with rules and regulations that threaten to displace the gospel message. At the same time, I hope and pray that the church of his developing years will be one that maintains a sense of worship in the face of the awe and majestic approach to worship. We say awesome so much that the word seems to be to be the q\equivalent of i like it. I do want to pick up on his middle name, Christopher, means means carrier of christ.Bentley refers to bent grass, a meadow, a place of feeding and refuge. Notice that his name picks up the theme from today’s psalm. A gorgeous facility such as this allows us to have a respectful approach to the majesty of God. Yet, we can and do find traces of the divine anywhere we go, yes in the meadow grasses, but also in the veGod in its march toward explanation. I disagree. if one looks at science form a religious framework, we encounter the very blueprint of divine creative activity.Yet, God’s awe-inspiring activity is often less spectacular than done with a veiled hand. God, to paraphrase Luther hides action under the aspect of the small and everyday. Water is   such a redolent symbol, but it is so ordinary, but its very common quality makes it perfect for a sacrament of equality within the household of God.Put differently, in a universe of billions of galaxies, all containing billions of star systems, God calls us by name as individuals, loves us by name, hold us in the very life of the divine. Out of the vast cosmic ocean this morning heaven stands still for this child to be welcomed into the whole household of God, God’s human family.Baptismal water does not quench the fire of the spirit; it enlivens it, as the dross of human life is burned away, all to expose what god sees, the best in each one of us.

OT Notes. jer. 2:4-14

I just saw an internet entry bemoaning this passage as negative, not cheery and uplifting. As someone who finds life so hard at times, i so appreciate that we have these sorts of material within the pages of Scripture.

1) God is bewildered here. it reminds one of similar material in Hosea. God seems to have tried the best to be beneficent, but it seems to be thrown back at god, or quickly forgotten as the due of the chosen ones.

2)Instead of gratitude, not only do we forget but we actively seek replacements for the God of deliverance.

3) The three engines of religion:priests, rulers, and prophets all fail.Is tha tthe same in our time?

4) God continues in this vein of issuing an indictment against the people in what many see as a lawsuit format. again god is mystified in the god of a peoiple being transferred to another allegiance. What elements of our culture serve as substitutes for allegiance to God?

5) v. 11 is powerful for our time. when do we substitute the worthless for the precious?

6) this image is made even more evocative in the final verse, where we build oursleves cracked vessels while we reject the fountain of life-sustaining water. Waht would be osme good modern examples of this?

OT Notes jer. 1:4-10

See Peterson, Run with the Horses along with other ocmmentaries

this will be tough, as I am not in the mood for another call story. 1) knew is a translation of intimate knowledge and in gen. included secual knowledge. Here, what would be the extent of divine knowledge before he was in the womb? a destiny perhaps, a vision wihtin god?

2) Youth is no barrier to the call of God again, as with young samuel. this could be a place ot examine vocation, at any age, as in Studs Terkel’s fame dline, we want a calling, not a job.”

3)v. 10 does stand as a guide to the entire book. In contemporary church the “negative” verbs and only emphasize the “positive” verbs. (See Breuggemann on the use of verbs in TOT).

4)Our Reformed tradition  emphasizes preaching as “word of God.” Do you hold to such a sacramental view of preaching?

5) Again this call story is a dialogue. It is not for a puppet, but a responsive, responsible human being.,

6) How do you think he reacted to being told that he would be  a prophet ot the nations, instead of israel alone?

7) Again, this is a good place to speak of fear 9v.8) and the promise to deliver from fear through god being with us.

OT Notes for the 18th of august

Again,please go to Patrici Tull’s Isaiah commentary, please.

1) I am struck by the image of God as gardener.Depending on one’s view of gardening, one could come up with all sorts of illustrations and observations: its planning,implementation and implements growth, surprise, sense of frustration or fulfillment .obstacles, etc.

2) I also like the idea of seeing our lives as a vineyard/garden.

3\) I was once told that the best marriage is a garen marrying a gardener.

4) It is a love song, so it appears a love song of God. That is not a notion that comes to us easily is it? What are your favorite love songs? I heard that the grist for the mill fo the love  song  would be heartbreak and falling in love.

5) Presbyterian like to speak of God in control. This passage does indicate that pt of view, does it?

6) Imagine the frustration here of a God who does everything in love, works to prepare the garden vineyard and finds it in ruins.

7) The word waste may have been carefully chosen as it reflects the primordial chaos of Gen. 1 tohu and bohu.

8) I have mentioned it previously but the end of v. 7 is Hebrew wordplay. one could try to make it rhyme or use alliteration to pickj up the point if you wish. However, do not get cute, as the words are social and important then and now

Aug. 11 sermon notes Is. 1:10-20, Lk.,12:32-40, Ps. 50

God is less than satisfied with even well-performed worship practices here. God is fed up with worship practices that are ‘gifts of nothing”they have blood on their hands, but not the blood of sacrificial animals, but human blood.It is directeed a tthe outcome of greed. I think that sometimes Christians have an image of a Spirit directed automatic, magical consensus. Alternately, we fall into the latest fad with process and have unending meetings that spends so much on the how of arriving at a decision, we don’t reach one.I would like to suggest that the Spirt is fully capable of working through a disagreement on assumptions, process, or product. The spirit is fully capable of working through the clash of opinions and data. If we can reach unanimity in a court case of 12 people, we can reach good decisions in other areas.

basic hebrew ethics as clear as one could wish or fear Notice that the prophetic denunciation of Sodom is not homosexual rape but neglect of the poor (see Ezek 16:49).God’s love may be unconditional, but God certainly sets conditions here for proper worship. So many of the feeling swirling around different worship style would be preference for formal v. informal, classical or contemporary sounds. Our passage this morning sees that as wasted breath. what it demands is a social precondition for good worship-justice.Let’s work this through. God says. in our polarized time; we do not even attempt this. “You are either with me or against me;my way or the highway: one right way does exist:mine.” We have some consensus on possession, however. With the Beatles we agree money can’t buy me love.” (Insert your own joke here). I hear people say  that money cannot buy happiness either, but ocme to think of it, i don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone rich say it.

Let’s try to work through the issue of possessions some more. Personally, i am attracted to a simpler, ascetic lifestyle at times, so I need ot tread carefully here. i find no reason to try to guilt people into being more generous, as it seems to be to fade quickly wiht time. second, I see little value in denouncing folks for having some material comforts. At the same time, we would probably to well to seek some balance.I saw the movie the Way Way Back last weekend. All of the adults taking summer vacation are well off. They are all miserable.When the search for the next possession seems to be taking up so much time, attention, and money tha tit interferes with other things in lfie, then we know our balance is shifted. The kingdom of god, God’s way in the world, god’s vision for us seems to be a shared road. In my short time here, we run a deficit and then some magical donations pour in at the end of the year. Our pooled resources seem to be more than adequate to maintain our church structure, but we do well to ask if we are carrying our fair share of the load.I have come to realize at how fresh the wounds of previous decisions about finances continue to eat away at the attitudes of a number of folks here. Here we recive the gift of God, the living jesus Christ without cost, because the fit is priceless.

Communion responds to the issue of possession in a number of ways. One it shares resources, but here just a taste finds our cup runneth over. Second, it sees our future as more than the sum total of what we have.We may not achieve consensus on Christian beliefs about Communion, but most of us agree that this practice helps to define Christians.The word eucharist, good grace, is another word for thanksgiving, the name of our long, long Communion prayer. gratitude is an antidote to greed.

Week of Aug. 11 Devotional Pts

Sunday-Ps.50 does not leap up at me immediately. It is a psalm of judgment that fits perfectly the reading today from Isaiah. God decries worship if it does not show up in lives worthy of being in a worship space. We often enter gorgeous sanctuaries but bring in lives that are inappropriate to the presence of God, no matter how carefully and elegantly clad we may be.How christians dare call Judaism legalistic with these passages repeated in Scripture astounds me.

Monday-I notice when I find myself saying, "I should do such and such." Self-talk affects our unconscious thinking and acting. Decades ago I remember reading psychologist Karen Horney's phrase "the tyranny of the should," only slightly more philosophical than the Saturday Night Live line, "You're shoulding on yourself!" When I catch myself saying "I should" do a certain task, if I can translate it "I'd like to..." or "I need to..." then it lies close to my passion. (If not, it's someone else's call). I move from "should" to "can" to "will"--then discern when and how to act on it. Ira Kent Groff

Tuesday-I may as well continue with some quotes.Micheal O’Siadhail goes against the grain of a long marriage become dull and routine.”over bequeathed secrets we learn to repossess/in hints and   traces, these words we must guess....riddles of what we read between the lines...this tick-tack of things we still negotiate....those unheard words that in a heart betoken/ all of all which must remain unspoken.” What surprises do you receive from someone you have known for a long time? What must remain unspoken in your prayer life, if anything? How are we still secrets to each?

Wednesday-I saw this quote from William Blake  in David Ford’s fine book, The shape of Living (p.157): “every moment has a couch of gold for soft repose...there is a moment in each day that Satan cannot find...once is found,it renovates every moment of the day if rightly placed.” to me it sounds similar to a sabbath moment of repose in each day. just as we can take one day of rest a week, perhaps we should alos take some sabbath time each day to refresh the working soul.

Thursday I read the new Dan Brown novel, Inferno. He is hardly a prose stylist, but his plot is moderately involving. It centers on readings of Dante’s great three part poem on the afterlife, The Divine Comedy. Most of us remember the first part, Inferno, on Hell. why is that, do you think?

Friday-I am seeing a lot of postings of back to school. it always makes me a little sad. From carefree to work is a tough transition. Do we ever feel as if the child is ready for hte next step in life? do you have back to school memories in your experience or children or grandchildren? I wonder if God feels that we are not ready to face the world with our level of strength, daily?

Saturday-”Unlike the claims of consumer society, the community operates with a powerful vision, a vision that affirms that the future is not yet finished. God has a powerful intention and resolve to bring us to a wholeness not yet in hand.” Walter Breuggemann in Texts Under Negotiation