devotions Week of 11/13

Sunday Nov. 13 Ps. 123-Prays to god for mercy as they have seen too much of contempt. that is a powerful word, as it is redolent of disdain, race, of being treated as lower than dirt. I don;t know what’s worse, to be treated with contempt or to treat others with contempt. The latter is a highly developed vice among the religious, no? Perhaps the saddest thing is when love, say between a couple, transmutes over time into contempt. Thank God the Holy One does not ever treat us with contempt.

Monday-The falling leaves are often beautiful, but the trees show the transience of life. Perhaps I like autumn as it has the sense of the fragility of life coupled with the stunning, transient beauty of the leaves of yellow, rust, and red. (I just checked outside the window to look for more colors). It sounds like the reading for December 4 from Is. 40. In the midst of transience and pain, the prophet is urged to give comfort, to speak tenderly. What are your favorite sources for comfort?

Tuesday- I’m hoping to see Paul Simon play today. He worked for years with a partner, and he has had much success on his own as a singer/songwriter. His most recent release demonstrates that he feels the breath of mortality on his neck. “It seems our fate/to suffer and wait/for the knowledge we seek.” He writes of a line in heaven like a line at the Dept. of Motor vehicles. He looks at the afterlife seriously, but not too seriously. Come to think of it, that is not a bad angle of vision for the christian, is it?

Wednesday-I was accosted yet again by someone saying that we don’t hear enough about hell in church anymore.That may well be true, but part of me wants to respond that we don;t hear enough about loving God and each other enough either. Wanting to hear about hell either believes that fear is the best religious weapon or it give solace that one is not destined for hell, but others are. Maybe it’s the same impulse that likes to be scared by roller coasters or horror flicks. it takes some of the fear out of the unknown.

Thursday-I smile when I hear young people especially, say the great phrase, I’m bored. Young people post it on facebook with a thrill of discovery and publicity. Sometimes i think bored means that we are not in a relationship.Maybe it’s being lost and not knowing what to do with time and energy. maybe it’s a tactic to avoid a project, and it’s safer to take on a stance instead of action.


Friday-Peter Forsyth writes:””Isolation means arrested development...Social life, duty, and sympathy are the only conditions where true personality can be shaped....Christ comes to the rescue with the gift of faith both to an active spirit and of a society complete in Himself.” Now prayer by oneself is not isolation, as it is always communication with the Holy Other.

Saturday- I make a presentation on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible for presbytery this morning. We owe our sense of what elevated language should sound like due to its rich language and cadence. In a way, it is what we imagine God’s majesty should sound like. The danger lies in thinking that religious language can only sound like Shakespeare and not in the everyday tongues where we are unaware that we hear angles speaking.