1) When is Paul's admonition ot please others both proper but also dangerous?
2)In v. 4 he makes old text present reality. waht do you think of this?
3) Again when is harmony both proper and dangerous to spiritual life?
4) How can we live out v. 7? Notice then that a series of gentile words follow the admonition.
5) Isn't v. 13 a great blessing? gee, maybe the pastor should lift it for sunday.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Romans 14
1) We return to theme of judging others. Where are you most judgmental?
2) Paul is now self-identifying with the strong-those who have moved past strictures about food and even sacred days.Apparently, he no longer harbors even doubts about this position.
3) This then buttresses his position that his camp cannot judge the so-called weak, as he is arguing against his own position.
4) Where in church disputes have you seen mutual edification as the ethical standard?
5) Paul says that we cannot get in the way of those with "weaker" faith when their position conflicts with our own. Indeed we bend over backward to accommodate them.
6) The study guide says that this is a plea for tolerance. isn;t it more? If a dispute is getting in the way of the weak, we should permit their viewpoint without interference, no? How would this influence our work at resolving disputes on doctrine and practice in the church now?
2) Paul is now self-identifying with the strong-those who have moved past strictures about food and even sacred days.Apparently, he no longer harbors even doubts about this position.
3) This then buttresses his position that his camp cannot judge the so-called weak, as he is arguing against his own position.
4) Where in church disputes have you seen mutual edification as the ethical standard?
5) Paul says that we cannot get in the way of those with "weaker" faith when their position conflicts with our own. Indeed we bend over backward to accommodate them.
6) The study guide says that this is a plea for tolerance. isn;t it more? If a dispute is getting in the way of the weak, we should permit their viewpoint without interference, no? How would this influence our work at resolving disputes on doctrine and practice in the church now?
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Oct 30 Devotions
Sunday October 30 is Reformation Sunday in many churches. The watchword of course, is the church reformed, always being reformed. I always was struck by the passive ending of it, so that it is god’s spirit reforming the church, not an act of human will. In other words, the church is a human institution, but ti is in the hands of god. God is not through with us yet. God uses this odd instrument to continue the work of redemption.
Halloween-A movement exists to make Halloween a “safe” holiday without thoughts of gore. I assume all of the candy will be sugar-free or organic. I think that by placing it within a spirit of fun and masks, it helps us to face the reality of death. Indeed, to make death an object of ridicule and humor strikes me as a proper response to the Easter people who claim resurrection at the core of our faith.Yes, death is the last enemy, but its days are numbered. One day, death will go to Hell.
Tuesday-All Saints Day is a great idea as we move toward the close of the church year. In Protestant language, we can honor all the saints, all of those who lived an died in the faith. It is a proper liturgical moment for us to consider those who have died as pioneers of the faith as they journey to the far side of the Jordan to the Promised Land beyond. do you have any prescribed rituals for honoring those who have gone on before you?
Wednesday- Do you have a bucket list, a list of things you would like to do before you leave this earth? In church recently I mentioned some with flying: as i have been in a glider and a balloon, but need to take a helicopter ride and if I get braver, fly an ultralight craft myself. Maybe it is less an action than an emotional tie that needs to be redone, or a someone whom we should forgive.
Thursday-we move from the end to happier thoughts of the here and now. “Pie in the sky, by and by is part of our culture, but it is a profound mistake to keep our lives on hold in order to wait for our beautiful heavenly reward. with it as a pledge, we are, or can be, emboldened to live a richer, fuller life here and now, despite the limitations we all face to some degree. Consider just one place where you could live more richly, more fully, maybe even just for today.
Friday-As I write this, I note that I plan to be in Urbana for a seminar on the mainline church. It seems that the older established churches are in decline and new centers are replacing them. While I applaud the newer movements to a degree, as I wish for many flowers in the church garden to bloom, I am profoundly saddened to see the older churches falling by the wayside. I do know that we are getting nowhere in playing the blame game and instead require a firm look at what to treasure, and what to let go, what to change.
Saturday-I hope to see our younger daughter in college at the end of this week, even as the actual date is still up in the air. It is a tightrope journey to be with an offspring who is at the cusp of full adulthood, yet not. She has a marvelous way of returning to precious memories of childhood through books or movies when the stress of adulthood becomes a bit much.What were your best tools in navigating different stages or passages in life? Where did faith come into play?
Halloween-A movement exists to make Halloween a “safe” holiday without thoughts of gore. I assume all of the candy will be sugar-free or organic. I think that by placing it within a spirit of fun and masks, it helps us to face the reality of death. Indeed, to make death an object of ridicule and humor strikes me as a proper response to the Easter people who claim resurrection at the core of our faith.Yes, death is the last enemy, but its days are numbered. One day, death will go to Hell.
Tuesday-All Saints Day is a great idea as we move toward the close of the church year. In Protestant language, we can honor all the saints, all of those who lived an died in the faith. It is a proper liturgical moment for us to consider those who have died as pioneers of the faith as they journey to the far side of the Jordan to the Promised Land beyond. do you have any prescribed rituals for honoring those who have gone on before you?
Wednesday- Do you have a bucket list, a list of things you would like to do before you leave this earth? In church recently I mentioned some with flying: as i have been in a glider and a balloon, but need to take a helicopter ride and if I get braver, fly an ultralight craft myself. Maybe it is less an action than an emotional tie that needs to be redone, or a someone whom we should forgive.
Thursday-we move from the end to happier thoughts of the here and now. “Pie in the sky, by and by is part of our culture, but it is a profound mistake to keep our lives on hold in order to wait for our beautiful heavenly reward. with it as a pledge, we are, or can be, emboldened to live a richer, fuller life here and now, despite the limitations we all face to some degree. Consider just one place where you could live more richly, more fully, maybe even just for today.
Friday-As I write this, I note that I plan to be in Urbana for a seminar on the mainline church. It seems that the older established churches are in decline and new centers are replacing them. While I applaud the newer movements to a degree, as I wish for many flowers in the church garden to bloom, I am profoundly saddened to see the older churches falling by the wayside. I do know that we are getting nowhere in playing the blame game and instead require a firm look at what to treasure, and what to let go, what to change.
Saturday-I hope to see our younger daughter in college at the end of this week, even as the actual date is still up in the air. It is a tightrope journey to be with an offspring who is at the cusp of full adulthood, yet not. She has a marvelous way of returning to precious memories of childhood through books or movies when the stress of adulthood becomes a bit much.What were your best tools in navigating different stages or passages in life? Where did faith come into play?
Romans 13
1) Why do you think Paul makes a strong case for secular authority?
2) In the Reformed tradition, we may rebel against tyranny. How do we determine this?
3) Paul then moves to the commandments as examples of loving the neighbor at most, or a deterrence and mark of civil wrong at bottom.
4) How does his sense of the imminence of the end times affect his view of secular power do you think?
5)Assess the quote from Niebuhr at the top of p. 69.
2) In the Reformed tradition, we may rebel against tyranny. How do we determine this?
3) Paul then moves to the commandments as examples of loving the neighbor at most, or a deterrence and mark of civil wrong at bottom.
4) How does his sense of the imminence of the end times affect his view of secular power do you think?
5)Assess the quote from Niebuhr at the top of p. 69.
Rom. 12
1) What are some other images we can get at the interdependence of the body? Does team do the trick? A theater company?
2)v.2 is emphasized by the Amish and Christian Science. What does it mean to you? Have you experienced this transformation? What part of your life is the best offering? the worst?
3) Living offering may be better than sacrifice.
4)Do you long for the spiritual gifts or skill sets of others but then neglect the ones you have?
5)Should we read vv.9-17 at weddings? How about for new church members?
6)After all of the words on peace starting at 18, why talk about burning coals on the head? Is this a version of being cruel to be kind?
7) V.21 is difficult indeed. have you seen it work? Where is it easiest and hardes tot try to live out this verse?
2)v.2 is emphasized by the Amish and Christian Science. What does it mean to you? Have you experienced this transformation? What part of your life is the best offering? the worst?
3) Living offering may be better than sacrifice.
4)Do you long for the spiritual gifts or skill sets of others but then neglect the ones you have?
5)Should we read vv.9-17 at weddings? How about for new church members?
6)After all of the words on peace starting at 18, why talk about burning coals on the head? Is this a version of being cruel to be kind?
7) V.21 is difficult indeed. have you seen it work? Where is it easiest and hardes tot try to live out this verse?
Sermon Notes Oct 30/Reformation sunday
Joshua takes on the mantle of Moses. We have a smaller version of the crossing of the Red Sea waters again. At first from slavery to freedom, and now we move from the wilderness to the Promised Land.to me it has echoes of the ancient Baal story in a fight with Judge River. (see Slaying the Dragon) To me, it shows the immense religious confidence of Israel to appropriate other stories and fold them into their story. Its religious imagination can adapt other traditions toward the worship of God if it encounters cultural material worth considering. In religious terms, it demonstrates the power of the god of Israel over any ancient enemy to God’s creation and the special people of Israel.
It seems to me to be crucial to note that this military campaign is more like a religious procession and will show itself again in a similar fashion in Jericho.this is an interesting take on the violence of the conquest that is such canard with those who stereotype the OT without bothering to read it at times.The river marks a boundary. so for me it is a liminal place, a threshold. As Dennis Olson said, it took the death of the old and the birth of the new to be able to finally shake off the slave mentality and enter into the Promised Land as a free people. The American slaves called the Ohio, the Jordan, as the marker of slave to free territory. Sometimes, we cannot go into a new place, forge a new direction until we have changed enough inside to be able to not only make but to flourish in the new situation.
Recall Joshua is the name of Jesus in Hebrew (god saves/helps/delivers)What do you think it felt like for Joshua to enter this long-Promised Land? Did he think of Moses, do you wonder? What are the wonders and dangers of attaining your dream? Are you exhilarated, or could you be disappointed. do you feel a bit empty once the great quest is over?” Is it a feeling of now what, where do we go from here? Possession of a dream does not seem to have the emotional impact of moving toward it at least some of the time.Indeed sometimes the journey, not the destination, is where all of the growth occurs. (Augustana One on Onestory)
Bruce Springsteen has a song the Promised Land, and it also appears in at least one other song.. “blow away the dream that break your heart/blow away the dreams that tear you apart/blow away the lies that leave you nothing except lost and brokenhearted. In his great song, Thunder Road, he sings of “riding out tonight to case the Promised Land.” This would be a good place to consider the pluses and minuses of the dream of the Promised Land as physical reality or metaphor.(see Breuggemann’s The Land.)
On this day we recall Luther’s promotion of a religious debate that turned into a revolution. He stood at the Jordan again when he said, here I stand, I can do no other in his reliance on his reading of Scripture against an authoritarian response form the church.Reformation Sunday is a dream found and deferred. Our watchword, the church reformed, always being reformed, is one that tries to keep the horizon receding and realizing that we do not achieve perfection in this life. In that sense, our decisions place us at the Jordan, a boundary marker of the kind of person we demonstrate by dint of our actions. We all cross the Jordan into the Promised Land at the great boundary of death. That will be a Promised Land that will exceed every hope.
It seems to me to be crucial to note that this military campaign is more like a religious procession and will show itself again in a similar fashion in Jericho.this is an interesting take on the violence of the conquest that is such canard with those who stereotype the OT without bothering to read it at times.The river marks a boundary. so for me it is a liminal place, a threshold. As Dennis Olson said, it took the death of the old and the birth of the new to be able to finally shake off the slave mentality and enter into the Promised Land as a free people. The American slaves called the Ohio, the Jordan, as the marker of slave to free territory. Sometimes, we cannot go into a new place, forge a new direction until we have changed enough inside to be able to not only make but to flourish in the new situation.
Recall Joshua is the name of Jesus in Hebrew (god saves/helps/delivers)What do you think it felt like for Joshua to enter this long-Promised Land? Did he think of Moses, do you wonder? What are the wonders and dangers of attaining your dream? Are you exhilarated, or could you be disappointed. do you feel a bit empty once the great quest is over?” Is it a feeling of now what, where do we go from here? Possession of a dream does not seem to have the emotional impact of moving toward it at least some of the time.Indeed sometimes the journey, not the destination, is where all of the growth occurs. (Augustana One on Onestory)
Bruce Springsteen has a song the Promised Land, and it also appears in at least one other song.. “blow away the dream that break your heart/blow away the dreams that tear you apart/blow away the lies that leave you nothing except lost and brokenhearted. In his great song, Thunder Road, he sings of “riding out tonight to case the Promised Land.” This would be a good place to consider the pluses and minuses of the dream of the Promised Land as physical reality or metaphor.(see Breuggemann’s The Land.)
On this day we recall Luther’s promotion of a religious debate that turned into a revolution. He stood at the Jordan again when he said, here I stand, I can do no other in his reliance on his reading of Scripture against an authoritarian response form the church.Reformation Sunday is a dream found and deferred. Our watchword, the church reformed, always being reformed, is one that tries to keep the horizon receding and realizing that we do not achieve perfection in this life. In that sense, our decisions place us at the Jordan, a boundary marker of the kind of person we demonstrate by dint of our actions. We all cross the Jordan into the Promised Land at the great boundary of death. That will be a Promised Land that will exceed every hope.
OT Lectionary notes for Nov. 6 First cut
1) Most see this as a covenant ceremony, a renewing or creation of a bond of god and the people, perhaps, perhaps, similar to political documents in the ancient near east of the mutual obligations of the ruler and the ruled. Shechem is a cultic site according to Gen. 12, 33, 35. this is a good place to explore bi. archaeology when it may fit biblical material and when it may well conflict with it.
The other side of the flood is literally other side of the river. Either translation could make a nice image for preaching or spiritual life on one’s boundaries.
2) why do you think we detect such a strong note of antipathy toward idolatry here? could it be a preview of apostasy?
3) How effective is the rhetorical device, for me and my house, we will serve the Lord?
4) what do you think of Joshua telling the people that they will be unable to follow god fully at 19?
5) at v. 22 how chilling do you find it to have the people be witnesses against themselves for a future divine trial? Should one generation be able to bind another?
6) I realize that I go beyond the lectionary listing here but the standing stone could be a good image, especially with the spate of public memorials we have been erecting of late.
7) why is god so jealous about rivals, real or potential?
8) Breuggemann’s considerations in the Land of in the more recent Theol. Intro to the OT (with others) is a great place to reflect on the meaning of the land as a construct, as a reality, as history, as promise and threat.
9) Listen to Springsteen in The Promised Land or his citing of it in the great Thunder Road.
The other side of the flood is literally other side of the river. Either translation could make a nice image for preaching or spiritual life on one’s boundaries.
2) why do you think we detect such a strong note of antipathy toward idolatry here? could it be a preview of apostasy?
3) How effective is the rhetorical device, for me and my house, we will serve the Lord?
4) what do you think of Joshua telling the people that they will be unable to follow god fully at 19?
5) at v. 22 how chilling do you find it to have the people be witnesses against themselves for a future divine trial? Should one generation be able to bind another?
6) I realize that I go beyond the lectionary listing here but the standing stone could be a good image, especially with the spate of public memorials we have been erecting of late.
7) why is god so jealous about rivals, real or potential?
8) Breuggemann’s considerations in the Land of in the more recent Theol. Intro to the OT (with others) is a great place to reflect on the meaning of the land as a construct, as a reality, as history, as promise and threat.
9) Listen to Springsteen in The Promised Land or his citing of it in the great Thunder Road.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Notes Rom. 9-11
1) what do you think of Paul's argument in 9:6-12 9that the progeny of Abraham is not limited to Israel since Isaac was a child of promise (apparently not of biology?)
2) What do you think of his point in 9:18? do you agree with the text at 59 first paragraph that to be happy about salvation unless everyone is happy?
3) The chapter ends with a string of citations. is this effective for you? Is it convincing now?
At pg. 59 at the bottom what do you think of the distinction made between predestined and pre-determined? Note tha tthe concluding section of our study is from the hymn god is working His Purpose Out.
4) At 10:9, 13 does that strike you as sufficient?
5) Could 10;12 be extended in different ways in our time? why or why not?
6) Again are the citations at the end of ch. ten a convincing argument for Israel not hearing the gospel to the extent Paul wishes?
7) At 11:11 what do you think of this point?
8)How does ingrafting argument temper Gentile christian arrogance?
9) How does v. 29 bake arguments about god’s rejection of Israel?
10) Why does Paul end in this doxology of Scripture citation? I share with our authors a liking for the conclusion of the chapter that the gifts of god are irrevocable. what does this do with your relationship with God?
2) What do you think of his point in 9:18? do you agree with the text at 59 first paragraph that to be happy about salvation unless everyone is happy?
3) The chapter ends with a string of citations. is this effective for you? Is it convincing now?
At pg. 59 at the bottom what do you think of the distinction made between predestined and pre-determined? Note tha tthe concluding section of our study is from the hymn god is working His Purpose Out.
4) At 10:9, 13 does that strike you as sufficient?
5) Could 10;12 be extended in different ways in our time? why or why not?
6) Again are the citations at the end of ch. ten a convincing argument for Israel not hearing the gospel to the extent Paul wishes?
7) At 11:11 what do you think of this point?
8)How does ingrafting argument temper Gentile christian arrogance?
9) How does v. 29 bake arguments about god’s rejection of Israel?
10) Why does Paul end in this doxology of Scripture citation? I share with our authors a liking for the conclusion of the chapter that the gifts of god are irrevocable. what does this do with your relationship with God?
Sermon Notes Josh. 3, I thes. 4 for Oct. 30
At the end of Israel’s lightning conquest of the Promised land, as much a religious procession as armed conquest, standing stones are placed as a memorial. we have a spate of them recently:MLK ,FDR, Korea, WWII. Lovejoy monument here. Cemeteries are parks of standing stones as our the old church yards.
Paul writes in response to the early church in a greek port: what happened to their friends who had died before the second coming? Would they be lost, forgotten, even by God.
With the enormous popularity of the Left Behind series of books, many Americans were introduced to a fairly recent model for coming to grips with apocalyptic material. All the word means is lifting the lid from a pot, to reveal what is beneath.It is a genre of writing for people who want god to intervene as they have no hope of winning on their own. Here in Paul’s first letter, we see him sing its symbols as a way to tell people that the age has turned in the fullness of time, a new and better age has begun in Jesus Christ.
Rapture theology is part of a fairly recent 19th century view that the apocalyptic material is a recipe book. It tries to tie material together from different places in the bible into a predictive framework for out time.Yes, this is clearly apocalyptic end time material. the word rapture comes from Latin, the word means to snatch or be caught up in Greek. The word was carefully chosen in my view as this same word is usually applied to death snatching us from life itself.
instead of seeing as present with Christ at death, we will be united with Christ, the living and the dead.the dead will not be forgotten. Rapture theology takes it all upside down and has the living separated away in their two stage second coming approach. the living are separated from what they fear would be a period of tribulation, so escape, not compassion is its ruling idea. (Joyce ending) In the end, rapture theology is for people who have lost hope in being agents of the kingdom of heaven and passively await a divine lightning bolt to change things that they have given up on.That is why it is so vital for them to see the world as going downhill, as getting worse and worse, as they want to hasten the end. for them, only a small group will be spared from the lion’s den of contemporary life.
Right after All Saints Day, it is a good time to consider these great words, do not grieve as those who have no hope. Note that it decidedly does not say do not grieve, period. The virtue of hope affects our present. it can give us energy and direction, in spite of, the facts on the ground. A basic truth about us is that we grow attached to people. We often do not have great resources to deal with the loss of someone to whom we are attached. We fear that our attachment now mocks us, as we could be absent forever.Paul offers the encouragement that in the new age we can rely on god’s faithfulness. We will be kept together through the new life in Christ, not our memory, not even the strength of our loves. In other words, Christ’s presence, including divine presence in the passage into heaven gives us ground for hope. Still, here on earth we do grieve, must grieve, should grieve; such is the depth of our attachment; such is the depth of our love.
Paul writes in response to the early church in a greek port: what happened to their friends who had died before the second coming? Would they be lost, forgotten, even by God.
With the enormous popularity of the Left Behind series of books, many Americans were introduced to a fairly recent model for coming to grips with apocalyptic material. All the word means is lifting the lid from a pot, to reveal what is beneath.It is a genre of writing for people who want god to intervene as they have no hope of winning on their own. Here in Paul’s first letter, we see him sing its symbols as a way to tell people that the age has turned in the fullness of time, a new and better age has begun in Jesus Christ.
Rapture theology is part of a fairly recent 19th century view that the apocalyptic material is a recipe book. It tries to tie material together from different places in the bible into a predictive framework for out time.Yes, this is clearly apocalyptic end time material. the word rapture comes from Latin, the word means to snatch or be caught up in Greek. The word was carefully chosen in my view as this same word is usually applied to death snatching us from life itself.
instead of seeing as present with Christ at death, we will be united with Christ, the living and the dead.the dead will not be forgotten. Rapture theology takes it all upside down and has the living separated away in their two stage second coming approach. the living are separated from what they fear would be a period of tribulation, so escape, not compassion is its ruling idea. (Joyce ending) In the end, rapture theology is for people who have lost hope in being agents of the kingdom of heaven and passively await a divine lightning bolt to change things that they have given up on.That is why it is so vital for them to see the world as going downhill, as getting worse and worse, as they want to hasten the end. for them, only a small group will be spared from the lion’s den of contemporary life.
Right after All Saints Day, it is a good time to consider these great words, do not grieve as those who have no hope. Note that it decidedly does not say do not grieve, period. The virtue of hope affects our present. it can give us energy and direction, in spite of, the facts on the ground. A basic truth about us is that we grow attached to people. We often do not have great resources to deal with the loss of someone to whom we are attached. We fear that our attachment now mocks us, as we could be absent forever.Paul offers the encouragement that in the new age we can rely on god’s faithfulness. We will be kept together through the new life in Christ, not our memory, not even the strength of our loves. In other words, Christ’s presence, including divine presence in the passage into heaven gives us ground for hope. Still, here on earth we do grieve, must grieve, should grieve; such is the depth of our attachment; such is the depth of our love.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
On Sight and Insight
I write the day of the miraculous eye surgery practice by Dr. Hanish. That has led me to consider the metaphor of sight in different areas of life.In particular, we are a long way from having the miracle of cataract surgery being applied to our lack of insight into situations, relationships, and the dark, screened-off parts of our own personalities.
Recently, I received an invitation for out 40th high school reunion next year (gasp). Much of what we do at a reunion is based on perspective. With the lower angels of our nature, we may hope that the cheerleader or homecoming queen has not aged well, and the better angels of our nature hope for good things for those lower on the awful social scale. Our reactions to changes are interesting. While we accept the changes in ourselves as perfectly proper and natural, we resent the changes in others. Why? I think it violates the playback button of our memory. We want to see people as we remember them, even if we rationally know that cannot be. It almost feels like a personal affront that someone would dare to change from how we recall them in our mind’s eye.
I’ve been reading a new set of essays, The Idea of America, by the eminent historian Gordon Wood. He reminds us that one of the great aspirations of the founding Era was that public service should be disinterested (not as the word has morphed into being uninterested), but objective, public spirited, having a horizon broader than one’s self interest. In our time, we have given up on even te ga of objectivity. While admitting that bias creeps into all of our judgments, is it not still a worthy aspiration” Notice the quality of our national leaders when we had adopted a standard of disinterested public service compared to the lesser aspirants for office with whom we contend in our day.
In an oddly similar way, we may well need the help of a neutral, disinterested party when we examine our relationships. they are too close for us to see well, as jut as it is said that a doctor shouldn’t treat family members, nor a lawyer take on family as a client.One of the great aids of therapy is to have a neutral person who is on the side of the relationship, not either party, help us to see past our point of view, past our bias, and see more clearly into the relationship itself and our roles in it. The therapist takes on the role of a skilled friend who can listen with a third ear, or perhaps see with the third eye where our own vision is distorted.
In spiritual life, consider John Calvin’s metaphor of the Bible being spectacles, glasses. In other words, he thought that we did see but “in a mirror dimly.” Scripture gives focus to how we view the world. Maybe in our time we could switch it slightly to X-ray vision. through Scripture we ca glimpse the world behind the curtain. Put differently, it helps us perceive the hand of God in the world, where we would be blind to it. I have always been taken with the phrase, “the biblically-tutored imagination.” Soaked in Scripture, our imaginations can use images in provocative and deeper ways toward insights. It helps us to peer into that most protected of fortresses, our inner being. In Scripture, the Spirit guides us to make discoveries and to even discover ourselves in its pages. When Jesus healed the blind, it is almost always a signal about some spiritual blindness being touched as well. Perhaps that it the greatest journey that lies before us, to see into the depths of the human self, clearly.
Recently, I received an invitation for out 40th high school reunion next year (gasp). Much of what we do at a reunion is based on perspective. With the lower angels of our nature, we may hope that the cheerleader or homecoming queen has not aged well, and the better angels of our nature hope for good things for those lower on the awful social scale. Our reactions to changes are interesting. While we accept the changes in ourselves as perfectly proper and natural, we resent the changes in others. Why? I think it violates the playback button of our memory. We want to see people as we remember them, even if we rationally know that cannot be. It almost feels like a personal affront that someone would dare to change from how we recall them in our mind’s eye.
I’ve been reading a new set of essays, The Idea of America, by the eminent historian Gordon Wood. He reminds us that one of the great aspirations of the founding Era was that public service should be disinterested (not as the word has morphed into being uninterested), but objective, public spirited, having a horizon broader than one’s self interest. In our time, we have given up on even te ga of objectivity. While admitting that bias creeps into all of our judgments, is it not still a worthy aspiration” Notice the quality of our national leaders when we had adopted a standard of disinterested public service compared to the lesser aspirants for office with whom we contend in our day.
In an oddly similar way, we may well need the help of a neutral, disinterested party when we examine our relationships. they are too close for us to see well, as jut as it is said that a doctor shouldn’t treat family members, nor a lawyer take on family as a client.One of the great aids of therapy is to have a neutral person who is on the side of the relationship, not either party, help us to see past our point of view, past our bias, and see more clearly into the relationship itself and our roles in it. The therapist takes on the role of a skilled friend who can listen with a third ear, or perhaps see with the third eye where our own vision is distorted.
In spiritual life, consider John Calvin’s metaphor of the Bible being spectacles, glasses. In other words, he thought that we did see but “in a mirror dimly.” Scripture gives focus to how we view the world. Maybe in our time we could switch it slightly to X-ray vision. through Scripture we ca glimpse the world behind the curtain. Put differently, it helps us perceive the hand of God in the world, where we would be blind to it. I have always been taken with the phrase, “the biblically-tutored imagination.” Soaked in Scripture, our imaginations can use images in provocative and deeper ways toward insights. It helps us to peer into that most protected of fortresses, our inner being. In Scripture, the Spirit guides us to make discoveries and to even discover ourselves in its pages. When Jesus healed the blind, it is almost always a signal about some spiritual blindness being touched as well. Perhaps that it the greatest journey that lies before us, to see into the depths of the human self, clearly.
OT Notes Josh. 3:7-17
1) this is a mythic account, similar to the Red Sea parting. God demonstrates power over the waters again. to me it has echoes of the ancient Baal story in a fight with Judge River. (see chapter on this crossing in slaying the Dragon by a professor from DePauw . To me, it shows the immense religious confidence of israel to appropriate other stories and fold them into their story.
2) it seems to me to be crucial to note that this military campaign is more like a religious procession and will show itself again in a similar fashion in Jericho.this is an interesting take on the violence of the conquest that is such canard with those who stereotype the OT without bothering to read it at times.
3) the river marks a boundary. so for me it is a liminal place, a threshold.
4) Recall Joshua is the name of Jesus in Hebrew (god saves/helps/delivers)
5) what do you think it felt like for Joshua to enter this long-Promised Land? did he think of Moses, do you wonder?
6) this is a good place to remind the gentle reader that many folks see the conquest stories as not accurately depicting the rise of Israel. Gottwald, for instance, imagines a sort of Maoist peasant revolt from the inside that linked Hebrew settlers with other groups. We catch hints in the stories that the three lightning strikes of Joshua’s blitz did not roll over so easily. Consider that Jerusalem remained a city state for quite some time under the Jebusites.
7) The great Bruce Springsteen has a song the Promised Land, and it also appears in at least one other song, if I am not mistaken.This would be a good place to consider the pluses and minuses of the dream of the Promised Land as physical reality or metaphor.
2) it seems to me to be crucial to note that this military campaign is more like a religious procession and will show itself again in a similar fashion in Jericho.this is an interesting take on the violence of the conquest that is such canard with those who stereotype the OT without bothering to read it at times.
3) the river marks a boundary. so for me it is a liminal place, a threshold.
4) Recall Joshua is the name of Jesus in Hebrew (god saves/helps/delivers)
5) what do you think it felt like for Joshua to enter this long-Promised Land? did he think of Moses, do you wonder?
6) this is a good place to remind the gentle reader that many folks see the conquest stories as not accurately depicting the rise of Israel. Gottwald, for instance, imagines a sort of Maoist peasant revolt from the inside that linked Hebrew settlers with other groups. We catch hints in the stories that the three lightning strikes of Joshua’s blitz did not roll over so easily. Consider that Jerusalem remained a city state for quite some time under the Jebusites.
7) The great Bruce Springsteen has a song the Promised Land, and it also appears in at least one other song, if I am not mistaken.This would be a good place to consider the pluses and minuses of the dream of the Promised Land as physical reality or metaphor.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Dt.34 Sermon Oct 23
find this conclusion to the story of Moses to be heartbreaking. He gets a vision of the future and a view of the Promised land, a smaller view of the tour of the universe given to Job, but he cannot cross over. Is it possible that his death opens the way for others to enter (Ex. 1:37, 3:26, 4:21)? Dennis Olson writes that Moses died ahead of the people. This could be a good device to look at one’s life and see how we react to unfinished work, emotional ties, and even dreams. Part of our envy and frank dislike of the great is that it pushes us to look at our own lives. Even if lack the courage to do so, we know that our lives will seem to fall short of their, and if truth be told the expectations we have of ourselves. Even if we achieve our goals, even some of our dreams, we may well find that it still doesn’t seem to be enough. such is the ravening maw of human covetousness.
Moses is in great shape (but see 31:2) This could be one of the few times where god does take a life. The text emphasizes the words about Moses at the end are almost the same as applied to the mighty acts of God. All right, but God is working through a human being, even one like Moses. We can be God;s agents even if we are not Moses or even Joshua.
The people mourn for the designated period, and then they move on to another stage in the destiny of this new generation.Joshua is the new leader, and acknowledged as such, even though he is not, not, Moses. It is a hard thing to follow a great leader. People may try to claim their mantle, such as the candidates scrambling to claim President Reagan's. The lasting legacy of great leaders is that they imprison current leaders with the memories and influence of their years, even if the situation on the ground has changed radically. In churches, we often find pastor Goode, the embodiment of the church’s success, and pastors encounter that ghost all of the time.
We do well to reflect on a life well lived and still a life with unfinished business. Even if we have achieved goals, we may well have unfulfilled dreams. As Springsteen said, “is a dream a lie that doesn't come true, or is it something worse?” Langston Hughes: “what happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun..or does it just sag like a heavy load?”
What are some things we should attend to? In facing our own demise, basic things such as Power of attorney and planning our own funeral needs. As we contemplate our own end, we can
reach out to heal some emotional wounds or attend to some spiritual matters. Maybe you have a
bucket list? (helicopter ride in St Louis will take care of one of my flying ones as I have been in a balloon and a glider.)It is important to me to keep working on two writing projects that are well underway.
I got into a bit of an argument with a friend of mine over a seminary bringing in the writer Marcus Borg. I think that his audience is a bit beneath a seminary audience, but she likes and respects his work. I think it annoyed me, in part, because, it makes me reflect on my own slow slog in trying to write some projects and my put down is bred of envy and personal frustration. Yet, even as we never finish our goals or meet our dreams, God accepts us, loves us.That is complete.
Moses is in great shape (but see 31:2) This could be one of the few times where god does take a life. The text emphasizes the words about Moses at the end are almost the same as applied to the mighty acts of God. All right, but God is working through a human being, even one like Moses. We can be God;s agents even if we are not Moses or even Joshua.
The people mourn for the designated period, and then they move on to another stage in the destiny of this new generation.Joshua is the new leader, and acknowledged as such, even though he is not, not, Moses. It is a hard thing to follow a great leader. People may try to claim their mantle, such as the candidates scrambling to claim President Reagan's. The lasting legacy of great leaders is that they imprison current leaders with the memories and influence of their years, even if the situation on the ground has changed radically. In churches, we often find pastor Goode, the embodiment of the church’s success, and pastors encounter that ghost all of the time.
We do well to reflect on a life well lived and still a life with unfinished business. Even if we have achieved goals, we may well have unfulfilled dreams. As Springsteen said, “is a dream a lie that doesn't come true, or is it something worse?” Langston Hughes: “what happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun..or does it just sag like a heavy load?”
What are some things we should attend to? In facing our own demise, basic things such as Power of attorney and planning our own funeral needs. As we contemplate our own end, we can
reach out to heal some emotional wounds or attend to some spiritual matters. Maybe you have a
bucket list? (helicopter ride in St Louis will take care of one of my flying ones as I have been in a balloon and a glider.)It is important to me to keep working on two writing projects that are well underway.
I got into a bit of an argument with a friend of mine over a seminary bringing in the writer Marcus Borg. I think that his audience is a bit beneath a seminary audience, but she likes and respects his work. I think it annoyed me, in part, because, it makes me reflect on my own slow slog in trying to write some projects and my put down is bred of envy and personal frustration. Yet, even as we never finish our goals or meet our dreams, God accepts us, loves us.That is complete.
Oct 23 Devotions
Sunday October 23-Resurrection appearances are a glimpse of heaven. it always strikes me as odd as people who claim great faith scurry to the next near death experience of supposed revelation of heaven, but they consistently ignore the resurrection appearances as biblical indicators of heaven. Personally, since the bible is so circumspect in describing heaven, I am leery of anything that purports exact, specific descriptions.
Monday-Presbyterian retreat leader Ira Kent Groff writes that we “wrap our truth in stories.” I think he means that it is hard for us to grasp or even speak an abstract truth. We need to put it into a story for us to grasp and more easily bring into speech. I have noticed that if I can get people to tell me stories of the deceased when I do a community funeral I get a much better sense of the person that when they throw out descriptive words.
Tuesday-should every annoyance be spoken? Part of me thinks that trivial things should just be shrugged off for the mosquitoes they are. On the other hand, if they are permitted to build and fester, how can that be a good thing? Scripture say to be angry but do not sin. We do know from social psychology that a focus on getting anger out routinely, instead of managing it, tends to feed the anger.
Wednesday-Being stubborn is not the same as being principled. Often we are merely being stubborn and we have the gall to lift it to the level of principle.What we often mean by principle is what we want, what we think is correct, without regard for the views of others. It is not the same as persistent activity toward a goal; it resembles more a passive resistance to a change that does not meet our standard or approval. It has a way of breaking relationships and their needed flexibility, so in that sense, it can well be sinful.
Thursday-I heard a young lady of the Occupy movement explain to a reporter that we were at the cusp of a new age, just as people used to say we were at the dawning of the age of Aquarius according to the song of the sixties. How different is that than Rev. Camping predicting that the end of the world was coming on Friday? (I write this section on Saturday, so wrong, again).We all want to try to predict the future. Scripture argues against it, for we act with a vision of the future; we act to build a future in hope, not certainty.
Friday-Years ago, I read a book Exit, Voice, and Loyalty-I’ve gone back to it in memory, as I see that one of its options, exit, has become more and more our first reaction to conflict. Instead of having the loyalty to stick with a group or relationship, instead of being content with having our say, if it is not our way, we decide to pack up and leave. To me exit is the last resort, after all avenues have been exhausted. It strikes me as the action of a child who takes their marbles/.
Saturday-Greek Orthodox Christians place a lot of stock in icons, images of a biblical scene or idea. They assert that they are aids to spiritual meditation, as we are visal beings to a large degree. In their view, they are gateways to the beauty of the Infinite One, the Creator of all, the redeemer and sustainer of all. do you have “holy things” items that help being you into deeper contact with god or are aids to your spiritual meditation?
Monday-Presbyterian retreat leader Ira Kent Groff writes that we “wrap our truth in stories.” I think he means that it is hard for us to grasp or even speak an abstract truth. We need to put it into a story for us to grasp and more easily bring into speech. I have noticed that if I can get people to tell me stories of the deceased when I do a community funeral I get a much better sense of the person that when they throw out descriptive words.
Tuesday-should every annoyance be spoken? Part of me thinks that trivial things should just be shrugged off for the mosquitoes they are. On the other hand, if they are permitted to build and fester, how can that be a good thing? Scripture say to be angry but do not sin. We do know from social psychology that a focus on getting anger out routinely, instead of managing it, tends to feed the anger.
Wednesday-Being stubborn is not the same as being principled. Often we are merely being stubborn and we have the gall to lift it to the level of principle.What we often mean by principle is what we want, what we think is correct, without regard for the views of others. It is not the same as persistent activity toward a goal; it resembles more a passive resistance to a change that does not meet our standard or approval. It has a way of breaking relationships and their needed flexibility, so in that sense, it can well be sinful.
Thursday-I heard a young lady of the Occupy movement explain to a reporter that we were at the cusp of a new age, just as people used to say we were at the dawning of the age of Aquarius according to the song of the sixties. How different is that than Rev. Camping predicting that the end of the world was coming on Friday? (I write this section on Saturday, so wrong, again).We all want to try to predict the future. Scripture argues against it, for we act with a vision of the future; we act to build a future in hope, not certainty.
Friday-Years ago, I read a book Exit, Voice, and Loyalty-I’ve gone back to it in memory, as I see that one of its options, exit, has become more and more our first reaction to conflict. Instead of having the loyalty to stick with a group or relationship, instead of being content with having our say, if it is not our way, we decide to pack up and leave. To me exit is the last resort, after all avenues have been exhausted. It strikes me as the action of a child who takes their marbles/.
Saturday-Greek Orthodox Christians place a lot of stock in icons, images of a biblical scene or idea. They assert that they are aids to spiritual meditation, as we are visal beings to a large degree. In their view, they are gateways to the beauty of the Infinite One, the Creator of all, the redeemer and sustainer of all. do you have “holy things” items that help being you into deeper contact with god or are aids to your spiritual meditation?
Monday, October 17, 2011
Notes on Rom. 8:12-39 for Wedn.
1) Paul calls us children of god through the spirit. How should we then view ourselves and others? What does it mean to you to be able to call, Dad /Abba) or more formally, Father? Do problems of patriarchy arise here?
2)At 53 the authors say that suffering is an arena for god to work. When does suffering seem like divine absence? When can it be ana rena for god’s presence?
3) What do you think of Achtemeier’s position on family that the family that suffers together is the strongest?
4) Paul says that suffering can be seen as the labor pains of the new creation coming to birth. What do you think of this image?
5) While we wait for the new creation, we groan inwardly What makes you groan inwardly? Do you find the renewal of nature a compelling part of apocalyptic vision?
6) Dylan famously spoke of “busy being born, not busy dying.” Paul emphasizes hope as the bridge of present and future. Describe the positive and negative aspects of hope.
7) How do you imagine that the spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words?
8)How do you interpret 8:28? Immediatley the cross intrudes. How do you interpret a cruciform life in a land that emphasizes positive thinking?
9) at 56 they use Achtemeir’s points that conclude that destiny is no longer in our own hands. How is that comforting and challenging to your conceptions?
10) Paul is right to say that troubles and tribulations cause us to doubt love’s power in god. How does he respond? How do you respond to his great assertionin 8:39?
2)At 53 the authors say that suffering is an arena for god to work. When does suffering seem like divine absence? When can it be ana rena for god’s presence?
3) What do you think of Achtemeier’s position on family that the family that suffers together is the strongest?
4) Paul says that suffering can be seen as the labor pains of the new creation coming to birth. What do you think of this image?
5) While we wait for the new creation, we groan inwardly What makes you groan inwardly? Do you find the renewal of nature a compelling part of apocalyptic vision?
6) Dylan famously spoke of “busy being born, not busy dying.” Paul emphasizes hope as the bridge of present and future. Describe the positive and negative aspects of hope.
7) How do you imagine that the spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words?
8)How do you interpret 8:28? Immediatley the cross intrudes. How do you interpret a cruciform life in a land that emphasizes positive thinking?
9) at 56 they use Achtemeir’s points that conclude that destiny is no longer in our own hands. How is that comforting and challenging to your conceptions?
10) Paul is right to say that troubles and tribulations cause us to doubt love’s power in god. How does he respond? How do you respond to his great assertionin 8:39?
Friday, October 14, 2011
Musings on Nick Lowe recording
When I was a young man, one of my best friends was a journalist who supplemented his newswriting with being a music critic. He liked the singer Nick Lowe. As the singer has aged, he feels that it is not appropriate for a middle-aged man with gray hair to sing old rock songs, so he has continue to write and perform more acoustic behavior. I was struck by some of his interviews and performances on radio, so, for my birthday, I got his new recording, That Old Magic. I hasten to add here; I get more religious insight and sensibility from secular recordings than I do from much contemporary religious music, in terms of both content and musicianship.
I like the first cut, Stoplight Roses, the best. He takes the image of seeing someone buying a bunch of roses from a vendor at the street corner, and it blossoms into a song about relationships. Lowe is at the stage in life where he knows that relationships require tending, attention, and care. As an Englishman who loves gardening, he knows that stoplight roses are forced roses that lack the fragrance of a garden rose. For him, roses are a present that should be selected carefully for special occasions or as a desperate plea for forgiveness. Buying them as an afterthought seems to him to be a symbol for making one’s life in relationship an afterthought as well. Love is so precious, so in need of tender nurturing that it cannot be even touched by roses for “love’s promise in cellophane lace.”
Failure to tend love, results in the reason for “house for sale.” No, it is not a sign of our economic doldrums, but a sign that the singer is moving on”because this is a place where love used to reside.” Since it is not more, no mere possessions can hold it occupant any longer. It physical decline matches the decline of the “happy home.” After all, is it even possible to advertise a “home for sale?” Still, he wonders if “peace, love and understanding could make it as good as new?”
Relationships are a two-way street of course. So in Sensitive Man, he realizes that he can read his love’s unspoken looks like a book, but at the same time, he often is lost and needs some more direct clues into her thoughts and feelings, so he won’t be left out in the cold. The great risk is in I Read a Lot, lonely and blue don’t even begin to describe his feelings of being bereft. The person finds time a burden without love, so he retreats into the world of fantasy in reading, “population, one.”
He makes the explicit baptismal point that we need to cast of our old self with its faults in order to discover the new self discovered in love that are new every morning. “That little boy lost look doesn’t seem to work so well anymore.” It is self-deception to think that we can help a relationship flourish if we rely on the shame face we dust off on the back of the bathroom door.”
As he faces aging, he considers his hope of “crossing the Jordan’ at death, “checkout time.” Like so many people he misses that heaven is a gift from a gracious God, not the toting up of a moral bookkeeper who sees if the total of good outweighs the wrongs. As he writes, will I be forever damned for a long-forgotten crime?” Yet, he holds out hope that he shall sing Rock of Ages with the angels.
Still., love renews. Love always, always, holds out hope. He closes the record with “Til the Real Thing Comes Along. Far too often, we withhold parts of ourselves waiting for a perfect love that will not be found in this side of the Jordan. Indeed, as Augustine said, our souls are restless until they find rest in God,” the real love that enables us to love fully and well, on both sides of life’s aisle.
I like the first cut, Stoplight Roses, the best. He takes the image of seeing someone buying a bunch of roses from a vendor at the street corner, and it blossoms into a song about relationships. Lowe is at the stage in life where he knows that relationships require tending, attention, and care. As an Englishman who loves gardening, he knows that stoplight roses are forced roses that lack the fragrance of a garden rose. For him, roses are a present that should be selected carefully for special occasions or as a desperate plea for forgiveness. Buying them as an afterthought seems to him to be a symbol for making one’s life in relationship an afterthought as well. Love is so precious, so in need of tender nurturing that it cannot be even touched by roses for “love’s promise in cellophane lace.”
Failure to tend love, results in the reason for “house for sale.” No, it is not a sign of our economic doldrums, but a sign that the singer is moving on”because this is a place where love used to reside.” Since it is not more, no mere possessions can hold it occupant any longer. It physical decline matches the decline of the “happy home.” After all, is it even possible to advertise a “home for sale?” Still, he wonders if “peace, love and understanding could make it as good as new?”
Relationships are a two-way street of course. So in Sensitive Man, he realizes that he can read his love’s unspoken looks like a book, but at the same time, he often is lost and needs some more direct clues into her thoughts and feelings, so he won’t be left out in the cold. The great risk is in I Read a Lot, lonely and blue don’t even begin to describe his feelings of being bereft. The person finds time a burden without love, so he retreats into the world of fantasy in reading, “population, one.”
He makes the explicit baptismal point that we need to cast of our old self with its faults in order to discover the new self discovered in love that are new every morning. “That little boy lost look doesn’t seem to work so well anymore.” It is self-deception to think that we can help a relationship flourish if we rely on the shame face we dust off on the back of the bathroom door.”
As he faces aging, he considers his hope of “crossing the Jordan’ at death, “checkout time.” Like so many people he misses that heaven is a gift from a gracious God, not the toting up of a moral bookkeeper who sees if the total of good outweighs the wrongs. As he writes, will I be forever damned for a long-forgotten crime?” Yet, he holds out hope that he shall sing Rock of Ages with the angels.
Still., love renews. Love always, always, holds out hope. He closes the record with “Til the Real Thing Comes Along. Far too often, we withhold parts of ourselves waiting for a perfect love that will not be found in this side of the Jordan. Indeed, as Augustine said, our souls are restless until they find rest in God,” the real love that enables us to love fully and well, on both sides of life’s aisle.
Dt. 34 Notes
1) I am glad that Moses is granted such a panorama of the Promised Land. I find it heartbreaking that the is unable to enter the land. It reminds me a bit of the universal tour that God gives Job as part of his response to Job’s complaint.
2) Moses is buried there on the other side of the Jordan. The secret burial makes it difficult to create a shrine of his burial spot.
3) He is accorded proper mourning, but the people then start to move on. This could be a good place to discuss mourning rituals and how a ritual period puts a boundary around open-ended grief.
4) He gets a well-deserved coda at the the end of Torah’s five books. What would you like to be said about you? Who were the greatest public figures in your life? part of our envy of the great is that not only will we not measure up to them, but we will not fulfill even our own personal expectations.
5) the secret burial led later to a tradition that he was indeed assumed into heaven (see Jude) . Also the prophet like Moses would be a base for messianic expectations in some circles.
6) Moses dies with his great task unfinished. Do you have a bucket list? What pieces are accomplished? what will bother you if you don;t accomplish some of your goals/ Do you have unfinished emotional business? even if we do accomplish our goals, is that enough for the ravening maw of human covetousness?
7) Moses’s death has hints that it will be for the benefit of all the people (Ex. 4:21, 3 26, 1:37)
2) Moses is buried there on the other side of the Jordan. The secret burial makes it difficult to create a shrine of his burial spot.
3) He is accorded proper mourning, but the people then start to move on. This could be a good place to discuss mourning rituals and how a ritual period puts a boundary around open-ended grief.
4) He gets a well-deserved coda at the the end of Torah’s five books. What would you like to be said about you? Who were the greatest public figures in your life? part of our envy of the great is that not only will we not measure up to them, but we will not fulfill even our own personal expectations.
5) the secret burial led later to a tradition that he was indeed assumed into heaven (see Jude) . Also the prophet like Moses would be a base for messianic expectations in some circles.
6) Moses dies with his great task unfinished. Do you have a bucket list? What pieces are accomplished? what will bother you if you don;t accomplish some of your goals/ Do you have unfinished emotional business? even if we do accomplish our goals, is that enough for the ravening maw of human covetousness?
7) Moses’s death has hints that it will be for the benefit of all the people (Ex. 4:21, 3 26, 1:37)
Oct. 16 devotions
Sunday Oct 16-Ps. 90 is one of the great psalms of the church. Few look so directly at the transience of life. It stands in humility at a human life span in the face of the Eternal One for whom a day is like a thousand years for us.yet, the Eternal One hears our complaints and cares for us even across the distance of dimension and eternity. No matter our age, life is fragile and precious. let’s live like we recognize that signal fact.
Monday-School starts again, or the job grind starts again. My cousin just wrote me saying that she has had a difficult time knowing how to manage time during her retirement and has gone in for more of a schedule than she thought she would. Otherwise, free time was starting to fell like a burden. I often refer to monks who will pray for hours, often by meditating on a small passage of Scripture. We rush through so much of life. I can think of few things to give time dimension and meaning more than prayer and spending quality and quantity of time with the bible.
Tuesday-Should the church market itself? One the one hand, did not Jesus say follow me? On the on the other hand, as Jesus said, come and see. If advertising helps people to come and see our particular outpost of the faith, then is that an issue? Still, the church is about the truth, and does advertising seek to obscure the truth to make a product more attractive? Is faith to be equated with just another product? Does the fiath need ot be communicated in ways appropriate to this new century?
Wednesday-we worked with Romans 7 last week, one of the deep forays into the human psyche in Scripture. Instead of seeing sin as a mistake or a deliberate choice, it sees us as in constant battle in being in its thrall, so that our moral attitudes and actions are hopelessly mired in confusion. Paul calls that being mired in the path of spiritual death. As the baptized we are constantly called to the clarity of the spirit of life to extricate us from our predicament.
Thursday-I was reminded that Israel had immense self-confidence in their faith, so that they were able to take prayers from other religions and adapt them as their own. We can learn from that. Instead of walling ourselves off from other faith traditions, we too could look at prayers, often beautiful ones, and adapt them for Christian worship, toward beauty and truth.
Friday-I was reminded today that some things that we do that seem designed to annoy others are personality traits. Extroverts tend to think out loud, and that drives some people crazy. Introverts take a lot of time to process and mull over a decision within, and that drives the quicker extroverts nuts. Together we make a healthy relationship, often by burnishing the rough edges or excesses from each personality type. Maturation may well be finding balance in our own personality and learning tolerance for the imbalances in those of others.
Saturday-we have such conflicting notions toward change. Part of me thinks change is usually for the worst, as it always has unforeseen negative consequences, or change has to be embraced, otherwise we make no forward progress. Change makes me feel defensive, if it is not my idea. If my idea, then my feelings get hurt if it is not embraced. We live in constant tension between tradition and change. Where do you prize both?
Monday-School starts again, or the job grind starts again. My cousin just wrote me saying that she has had a difficult time knowing how to manage time during her retirement and has gone in for more of a schedule than she thought she would. Otherwise, free time was starting to fell like a burden. I often refer to monks who will pray for hours, often by meditating on a small passage of Scripture. We rush through so much of life. I can think of few things to give time dimension and meaning more than prayer and spending quality and quantity of time with the bible.
Tuesday-Should the church market itself? One the one hand, did not Jesus say follow me? On the on the other hand, as Jesus said, come and see. If advertising helps people to come and see our particular outpost of the faith, then is that an issue? Still, the church is about the truth, and does advertising seek to obscure the truth to make a product more attractive? Is faith to be equated with just another product? Does the fiath need ot be communicated in ways appropriate to this new century?
Wednesday-we worked with Romans 7 last week, one of the deep forays into the human psyche in Scripture. Instead of seeing sin as a mistake or a deliberate choice, it sees us as in constant battle in being in its thrall, so that our moral attitudes and actions are hopelessly mired in confusion. Paul calls that being mired in the path of spiritual death. As the baptized we are constantly called to the clarity of the spirit of life to extricate us from our predicament.
Thursday-I was reminded that Israel had immense self-confidence in their faith, so that they were able to take prayers from other religions and adapt them as their own. We can learn from that. Instead of walling ourselves off from other faith traditions, we too could look at prayers, often beautiful ones, and adapt them for Christian worship, toward beauty and truth.
Friday-I was reminded today that some things that we do that seem designed to annoy others are personality traits. Extroverts tend to think out loud, and that drives some people crazy. Introverts take a lot of time to process and mull over a decision within, and that drives the quicker extroverts nuts. Together we make a healthy relationship, often by burnishing the rough edges or excesses from each personality type. Maturation may well be finding balance in our own personality and learning tolerance for the imbalances in those of others.
Saturday-we have such conflicting notions toward change. Part of me thinks change is usually for the worst, as it always has unforeseen negative consequences, or change has to be embraced, otherwise we make no forward progress. Change makes me feel defensive, if it is not my idea. If my idea, then my feelings get hurt if it is not embraced. We live in constant tension between tradition and change. Where do you prize both?
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Preliminary Notes mt. 22:15-22, ex. 33:12-23
God realizes that we are overwhelmed by the sheer force of divinity. Part of god’s work in creation is the making of space for us to live, love, work and grow, without coercion.God shields Moses. God is furious and has tempted Moses with becoming the progenitor of a whole new people. Moses wants assurance that God will not be just with him but with all the people, not an angel, no no the presence of god t guide and stay and protect.
Moses as political leader-Moses has offered his very life to try to protect the people from the consequences o their betrayal of the command against idolatry. In the next chapter god’s character is announced slow to nager, merciful, gracious, extending steadfast love. that is god. That is the god of the Old and the New Testaments. This ineffable god, invisible, not to be picutred, allows Moses to catch sight of his glory.
Jesus himself is an extension of this gift to Moses, except that he is the tabernacle of the living god but liiving as a human being, so that we could draw close without being consumed like the Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Render to Caesar, a clever riposte is probably not a good place to start to build a political theology A friend of mine just used this passage n a stewardship campaign in arguing that we should render lots to the things of god, in his view, the church budget. OK in an ultimate sense the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, but as Paul himself reminds us governments are part of a subsidiary order that reflects a way of ordering human life in the chaos.(BOO and Conf?) I suppose our politics he become so debased that we need to say that Jesus is not forbidding the payment of taxes, and he lived under Roman oppression, not in a representative democracy. I would like to make it a biblical defense of separation of church and state, but I do not think it is fair to the text itself. As Paul said, we live in two overlapping worlds, our political arrangements of citizenship, but our dual citizenship is also in heaven. We hope that we have stable, secure free space to help decide political matters. Jesus’s clever riposte does not provide us with much a a working definition of how to divide what each inter-lapping realm may require. the way of god is not a forced march. many different paths can get us to the destination God wishes. some are precluded, of course, some preferred, perhaps, but god does not treat us as children. Adults have moral autonomy. God gives us the infinite compliment of thinking we are mature enough to make good moral decisions.
In Genesis, we are told we are made, all of us, in the image and likeness of God. Whose image on us-god’s in baptism, sign of the cross, the mark of god, 777. We give ourselves away to the world of Caesar for god. God is as near as every breath, but god won’t smother us. God does not countenance being used in a game of gothca either. At times, god will show us a way when we are in desperate need. Most of the time, god gives us the gift of space and room to work out our decisions on our own. Surely that can be done in prayerful discernment, using all of the intellectual and spiritual tools at our disposal, but the Spirit is more a a whisper than a commanding shout most of the time.God
Moses as political leader-Moses has offered his very life to try to protect the people from the consequences o their betrayal of the command against idolatry. In the next chapter god’s character is announced slow to nager, merciful, gracious, extending steadfast love. that is god. That is the god of the Old and the New Testaments. This ineffable god, invisible, not to be picutred, allows Moses to catch sight of his glory.
Jesus himself is an extension of this gift to Moses, except that he is the tabernacle of the living god but liiving as a human being, so that we could draw close without being consumed like the Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Render to Caesar, a clever riposte is probably not a good place to start to build a political theology A friend of mine just used this passage n a stewardship campaign in arguing that we should render lots to the things of god, in his view, the church budget. OK in an ultimate sense the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, but as Paul himself reminds us governments are part of a subsidiary order that reflects a way of ordering human life in the chaos.(BOO and Conf?) I suppose our politics he become so debased that we need to say that Jesus is not forbidding the payment of taxes, and he lived under Roman oppression, not in a representative democracy. I would like to make it a biblical defense of separation of church and state, but I do not think it is fair to the text itself. As Paul said, we live in two overlapping worlds, our political arrangements of citizenship, but our dual citizenship is also in heaven. We hope that we have stable, secure free space to help decide political matters. Jesus’s clever riposte does not provide us with much a a working definition of how to divide what each inter-lapping realm may require. the way of god is not a forced march. many different paths can get us to the destination God wishes. some are precluded, of course, some preferred, perhaps, but god does not treat us as children. Adults have moral autonomy. God gives us the infinite compliment of thinking we are mature enough to make good moral decisions.
In Genesis, we are told we are made, all of us, in the image and likeness of God. Whose image on us-god’s in baptism, sign of the cross, the mark of god, 777. We give ourselves away to the world of Caesar for god. God is as near as every breath, but god won’t smother us. God does not countenance being used in a game of gothca either. At times, god will show us a way when we are in desperate need. Most of the time, god gives us the gift of space and room to work out our decisions on our own. Surely that can be done in prayerful discernment, using all of the intellectual and spiritual tools at our disposal, but the Spirit is more a a whisper than a commanding shout most of the time.God
Saturday, October 8, 2011
M'Lady Gwenhwfir's Notes on Mt. 22:15-22
1) Since the Pharisees intend to entrap, it is ironic that they tell the truth in their flattery.What is the impact of bringing in Herodians?
2)See the recent Chr. Century for a nice piece on linking the image on the coin with the image of god on us/in us in baptism-also the word, character has the sense of being stamped, like a coin.
3)The loathsome task would be the daily minimum wage, so about &55.This was a flashpoint in Israel, as it was a tax to the occupying forces of Rome.Notice that the word for the tax, a census, is a big issue in the history of Israel as a problem, as it often led to corvee labor, thus enslaving the former slaves.
4) Even though this has it locus on taxation, one should be careful to make it a blank screen upon which we can project our views of contemporary taxation as a way to wave a political flag that merely uses the text as a launching pad.
5)hypocrite has a sense of being an actor with a classical mask, as in its root actor, dissembler/role player.that could be a good place to focus. See Thomas Long sermon, something like 2 and 1/2 cheers for hypocrites
6) One may want to notice that Jesus does not produce a coin, for rhetorical effect or out of poverty, but the critics have one at the ready. (Was its possession unclean?)
7)The image was probably idolatrous and called the emperor son of the divine Augustus, note that calling Jesus Savior, Son of God and other titles held by the emperor would place Christians into conflict with roman civic allegiance.
8) One way to read the riposte is to see that god's sovereign prerogatives do give some room to the state. (One could examine the word what belongs to Caesar some attention, perhaps). One needs ot be careful not to make this a plea for American separation of church and state, but one could link it to Paul's view of the state in Rom. 13.
9) It is a pt. that echoes through the centuries what are the things that are god's to be given/ When one consider the psalm, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, we run directly into a claim for our lives in their entirety, so our easy compartments fail to close against the claim.
10) Jesus does disappoint those looking for him to urge nothing to be given the sate, perhaps. This is a good example of Jesus not playing traditional power politics but transforming politics, to make the world more human/human a la the ethicist Paul Lehman in the Transformation of Politics (1975, I think)
11) Thoreau in Civ. Disobedience famously said that Jesus left his questioners none the wiser as to the tax issue as to a method of determination.
11)
2)See the recent Chr. Century for a nice piece on linking the image on the coin with the image of god on us/in us in baptism-also the word, character has the sense of being stamped, like a coin.
3)The loathsome task would be the daily minimum wage, so about &55.This was a flashpoint in Israel, as it was a tax to the occupying forces of Rome.Notice that the word for the tax, a census, is a big issue in the history of Israel as a problem, as it often led to corvee labor, thus enslaving the former slaves.
4) Even though this has it locus on taxation, one should be careful to make it a blank screen upon which we can project our views of contemporary taxation as a way to wave a political flag that merely uses the text as a launching pad.
5)hypocrite has a sense of being an actor with a classical mask, as in its root actor, dissembler/role player.that could be a good place to focus. See Thomas Long sermon, something like 2 and 1/2 cheers for hypocrites
6) One may want to notice that Jesus does not produce a coin, for rhetorical effect or out of poverty, but the critics have one at the ready. (Was its possession unclean?)
7)The image was probably idolatrous and called the emperor son of the divine Augustus, note that calling Jesus Savior, Son of God and other titles held by the emperor would place Christians into conflict with roman civic allegiance.
8) One way to read the riposte is to see that god's sovereign prerogatives do give some room to the state. (One could examine the word what belongs to Caesar some attention, perhaps). One needs ot be careful not to make this a plea for American separation of church and state, but one could link it to Paul's view of the state in Rom. 13.
9) It is a pt. that echoes through the centuries what are the things that are god's to be given/ When one consider the psalm, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, we run directly into a claim for our lives in their entirety, so our easy compartments fail to close against the claim.
10) Jesus does disappoint those looking for him to urge nothing to be given the sate, perhaps. This is a good example of Jesus not playing traditional power politics but transforming politics, to make the world more human/human a la the ethicist Paul Lehman in the Transformation of Politics (1975, I think)
11) Thoreau in Civ. Disobedience famously said that Jesus left his questioners none the wiser as to the tax issue as to a method of determination.
11)
Friday, October 7, 2011
Notes for Ex. 33 reading on Oct 16
1)After the Golden Calf, god is furious. OK an angel will go with you, but not my presence. God almost seems to be giving some breathing space to cool off.
2) Moses seizes on this, as at the bush he was promised that god would be with him. I guess an angle was insufficient for Moses. This bold intercession harkens back to Abraham.
3) the emphasis on grace and mercy are a prelude ot the great summation of divine character in the next chapter.
4) I honestly cannot decide, at least today, if God’s holiness/grandeur/glory, in general, would kill Moses, or if this is contingent on the betrayal of the golden calf episode. At any rate, I love how God gives as much to Moses as possible. I will not speculate on the backside of God point, but I will say that perhaps it means god hides the divine face from the wrong we do. After all, it is the goodness of God that passes by Moses. It is God shielding Moses. (Is this perhaps the spot for elijah and te still small voice?
5) Moses has called on God to remember the divine purpose of Ex. 19 to make a special holy people, a kingdom of priests. this is an excellent counter to God having called Israel your people to Moses, and Moses is buttressing the contention that they are still the people of god, even though the betrayal was explicit and deep.
6) Moses is a mediator for the people par excellence. In a desperate move, he relies soley on his relationship from the bush episode to call on the gracious side of God.
2) Moses seizes on this, as at the bush he was promised that god would be with him. I guess an angle was insufficient for Moses. This bold intercession harkens back to Abraham.
3) the emphasis on grace and mercy are a prelude ot the great summation of divine character in the next chapter.
4) I honestly cannot decide, at least today, if God’s holiness/grandeur/glory, in general, would kill Moses, or if this is contingent on the betrayal of the golden calf episode. At any rate, I love how God gives as much to Moses as possible. I will not speculate on the backside of God point, but I will say that perhaps it means god hides the divine face from the wrong we do. After all, it is the goodness of God that passes by Moses. It is God shielding Moses. (Is this perhaps the spot for elijah and te still small voice?
5) Moses has called on God to remember the divine purpose of Ex. 19 to make a special holy people, a kingdom of priests. this is an excellent counter to God having called Israel your people to Moses, and Moses is buttressing the contention that they are still the people of god, even though the betrayal was explicit and deep.
6) Moses is a mediator for the people par excellence. In a desperate move, he relies soley on his relationship from the bush episode to call on the gracious side of God.
Column on student debt for Alton Telegraph on line
I pray the Lord’s Prayer daily. As a Presbyterian, we use the Matthew version of the prayer, so one of the petitions is “forgive us our debts, s we forgive our debtors.” Usually we spiritualize or at least apply this to emotional wounds. Still, the word was deliberately chosen, as it is different than the word Luke chose in the shorter version of the prayer. Debt is a financial term. It is directed toward people who were often facing crushing debt burdens. perhaps the few who were owed large sums heard it and responded.
I ask readers to consider if we should apply the words of the Lord’s Prayer to the issue of debt in our country. In particular, how should we respond to the crushing debt young people carry in order to carry on their educations. This applies to public institutions as well as private ones. When I was a student in the late Dark Ages, the state provided more than one half of the funding for the University of Maryland. That figure, has dropped to less than one fifth. The burden is left on the student.People may look with nostalgia at a time when one could work through college, the enormous basic costs of present could only permit that memory to live if a student took ages to finally finish a degree.
Many of the high debt costs are due to interest rates at the time of the time in college.Even bankruptcy does not forgive the loans. These loans are large and crushing. Soon, the amount of college loans will exceed our unconscionable credit card debt, as we move inexorably past the trillion dollar mark. I do appreciate the idea of the moral value in paying one’s bills. Still, the Constitution recognizes bankruptcy protection to get a fresh start. ((Remember we still had debtors prisons for the bankrupt).
I would ask us to consider easing the burden of college loans by collectively sharing them. We could consider pushing for a law to ease, if not forgive, the debts of students.
After all, we have forgiven the debts of foreign nations, often corrupt ones. In the developing economy, college seems to be a necessity for many positions. For people going into graduate or professional school, the numbers reach dizzying, if not nauseating heights. Even with scholarships. a good liberal arts college may well require 1000,000 dollars from the student for four years. I know of precious few part-time jobs that can generate that sort of income.
It is obvious that we need to get more money circulating in this sluggish economy. A large part of the income of younger people is shifted directly into college loan payments. In part, young people have to put their independent lives on hold as they cannot afford a decent apartment or even considering saving for a home, as a large percentage of their income pays student loans.
The American Dream will continue on the wings of education, but it is impeded if we place the burden on the backs of young people. Instead of speaking of future debt burdens due to our share in the budget deficits, we could act decisively and for the current crisis in helping out people being squeezed by a system over which they have no control.
The usual word for forgive in the Greek New Testament is aphiemi, literally not to hold on to, or to let go, release. Student loan forgiveness, or even partial release could help energize this economy for the young. Socially, we know that education is still the ladder for personal achievement in this country, as generation after generation has shown. We cannot shackle the dreams of this generation to the sinking weight of student loans.
I ask readers to consider if we should apply the words of the Lord’s Prayer to the issue of debt in our country. In particular, how should we respond to the crushing debt young people carry in order to carry on their educations. This applies to public institutions as well as private ones. When I was a student in the late Dark Ages, the state provided more than one half of the funding for the University of Maryland. That figure, has dropped to less than one fifth. The burden is left on the student.People may look with nostalgia at a time when one could work through college, the enormous basic costs of present could only permit that memory to live if a student took ages to finally finish a degree.
Many of the high debt costs are due to interest rates at the time of the time in college.Even bankruptcy does not forgive the loans. These loans are large and crushing. Soon, the amount of college loans will exceed our unconscionable credit card debt, as we move inexorably past the trillion dollar mark. I do appreciate the idea of the moral value in paying one’s bills. Still, the Constitution recognizes bankruptcy protection to get a fresh start. ((Remember we still had debtors prisons for the bankrupt).
I would ask us to consider easing the burden of college loans by collectively sharing them. We could consider pushing for a law to ease, if not forgive, the debts of students.
After all, we have forgiven the debts of foreign nations, often corrupt ones. In the developing economy, college seems to be a necessity for many positions. For people going into graduate or professional school, the numbers reach dizzying, if not nauseating heights. Even with scholarships. a good liberal arts college may well require 1000,000 dollars from the student for four years. I know of precious few part-time jobs that can generate that sort of income.
It is obvious that we need to get more money circulating in this sluggish economy. A large part of the income of younger people is shifted directly into college loan payments. In part, young people have to put their independent lives on hold as they cannot afford a decent apartment or even considering saving for a home, as a large percentage of their income pays student loans.
The American Dream will continue on the wings of education, but it is impeded if we place the burden on the backs of young people. Instead of speaking of future debt burdens due to our share in the budget deficits, we could act decisively and for the current crisis in helping out people being squeezed by a system over which they have no control.
The usual word for forgive in the Greek New Testament is aphiemi, literally not to hold on to, or to let go, release. Student loan forgiveness, or even partial release could help energize this economy for the young. Socially, we know that education is still the ladder for personal achievement in this country, as generation after generation has shown. We cannot shackle the dreams of this generation to the sinking weight of student loans.
Sermon notes 10/9 Ex. 32, Phil 4:1-9
Idolatry’s impetus comes from fear and anxiety.It is the answer to the question is go with us or not? That was left hanging in the reading 2 Sundays ago at Massah and Meribah. Now it appears that the people have already made an idol of Moses and grow anxious when he is gone for a while. Like teenagers, they decide to throw a party with daddy out of town. Idolatry is not limited to the adoration of an image. We have extended it to even making a priority in life of Church and culture, as we will soon hear in the affirmation of faith. . It was a feast to god but to try to capture the essence of the liberating god in a human enclosure is part of the point.I’ve always liked the expression that Presbyterians worship a big or large God.The reformed tradition has always seen idolatry as a most dangerous sin, partly as Calvin said, the human mind is a factory of idols. We are constantly at work creating substitutes for god, ways of replacing god with a smaller more malleable god. Is it beyond our capacity to try to capture the ineffable One in something we make? Is it another bite from the apple of the garden? With Adam and Eve human nature seems to want to be like a god.
Positive psychology can be an aid against false gods-it distracts the idol-making of our minds
positive psychology is demonstrated in helping in a crisis, in helping keep us resilience and flexible, instead of rigid and inflexible, therefore vulnerable to all of the twists and turns of life.
What we feed our minds does have a decided impact on a sense of well-being. I am not saying that we have discovered a panacea, but we do know more about the effects of mental stimulus than we once did. Let’s go at it from another angle. Those of us who deal with depression find that their thought patterns are altered due to the condition. When most people would shrug off a small issue, depressives will blow it out of proportion. Depressives see themselves as a cause of poor behavior in others and then beat themselves up for it. Depressives overgeneralize. Instead of seeing incidents as discrete, we will tend to put them in a pattern and mutter, why does that always happen to me; I never get things right. If we recognize our unhealthy thought patterns, recognize that depressive episodes are unconnected to events in our lives, then we have a tool that helps minimize the episodes when they do occur.
On the other hand, building up a stock of the material Paul urges does help mold virtues such as resilience. Dr Cam Meredith of this church spent a lot of time in his take on Adlerian ego psychology as trying to find the ways we can encourage the self to discover options and resources to deal with life’s difficulties. Paul emphasizes the word, excellence, quality, virtue, arete, in Greek. The word lovely would be closer to winsome, calls forth love, to see them is to love them, their kindness or benevolence evokes it in others--things fit to say and hear gracious/high-toned words--honorable/worthy/venerable/honorable/revered/dignified as in kabod/gravitas.
Years ago, I came across a study by Michael Robinson of videomalaise. High news watchers were more down on the country in than low news watchers. Alienated people say good things about a local official , but they know the country is going downhill fast. We use religious motivation to say that the world is going downhill. We do well to match every complaint with signs of hope and good. Religious commitments are screened our glasses.Will they look like Paul’s here this morning or glasses where everything looks gray, somber and in decline?
Positive psychology can be an aid against false gods-it distracts the idol-making of our minds
positive psychology is demonstrated in helping in a crisis, in helping keep us resilience and flexible, instead of rigid and inflexible, therefore vulnerable to all of the twists and turns of life.
What we feed our minds does have a decided impact on a sense of well-being. I am not saying that we have discovered a panacea, but we do know more about the effects of mental stimulus than we once did. Let’s go at it from another angle. Those of us who deal with depression find that their thought patterns are altered due to the condition. When most people would shrug off a small issue, depressives will blow it out of proportion. Depressives see themselves as a cause of poor behavior in others and then beat themselves up for it. Depressives overgeneralize. Instead of seeing incidents as discrete, we will tend to put them in a pattern and mutter, why does that always happen to me; I never get things right. If we recognize our unhealthy thought patterns, recognize that depressive episodes are unconnected to events in our lives, then we have a tool that helps minimize the episodes when they do occur.
On the other hand, building up a stock of the material Paul urges does help mold virtues such as resilience. Dr Cam Meredith of this church spent a lot of time in his take on Adlerian ego psychology as trying to find the ways we can encourage the self to discover options and resources to deal with life’s difficulties. Paul emphasizes the word, excellence, quality, virtue, arete, in Greek. The word lovely would be closer to winsome, calls forth love, to see them is to love them, their kindness or benevolence evokes it in others--things fit to say and hear gracious/high-toned words--honorable/worthy/venerable/honorable/revered/dignified as in kabod/gravitas.
Years ago, I came across a study by Michael Robinson of videomalaise. High news watchers were more down on the country in than low news watchers. Alienated people say good things about a local official , but they know the country is going downhill fast. We use religious motivation to say that the world is going downhill. We do well to match every complaint with signs of hope and good. Religious commitments are screened our glasses.Will they look like Paul’s here this morning or glasses where everything looks gray, somber and in decline?
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