Column on memorial day and proximity to Pentecost

Judge Callis graced one of the local Rotary clubs with a question and answer session recently. One of her administrative innovations is the development of a veteran’s court. It is designed to move veterans away from the criminal justice model into one aimed at rehabilitation as they struggle with civilian life. I noticed that John Huston’s suppressed documentary, Let there be Light, is being released. It was a study of what was called shell shock and what we would term PTSD today. We have 6500 veteran suicides every year. Others die in car crashes and at the hands of the police when the veterans endanger others in their rage and confusion. We keep those deaths under wraps on Memorial Day, and almost every other day for that matter. I am so pleased that Judge Callis mentioned her program before the last meeting prior to Memorial Day. We rightly honor those who fought and died in too many wars. With the miracles of military emergency medicine, many more soldiers are returning from the horrors of war than was the case a generation ago. What infuriates me is that the war hawks who seem delighted to send the young off to war seem to have no trouble allowing the exhausted soldiers who return home to be left on their own. Just recently I saw that the VA is hiring a large number of new counselors. We cheer them off to combat; our eyes well up when they return to base, but then we are condemned by our negligence of their needs. Cemeteries are filling up with veterans unable to adjust to civilian life to an alarming degree. Yes, the war hawks may well castigate those soldiers as weak. It feels more ennobling to honor war dead with Taps than to take on the hard task of tending to the wounds of those who return. I am so sick of those who are willing to spend unlimited amounts of money for killing machines but want to stop the flow of money to honor those who return with the services they may require. In the Christian calendar, Pentecost approaches this Sunday. Mainline churches don’t quite know what to do with this festival of the spirit. Christmas and Easter seem so much clearer. The situation was rife with potential conflict. The disciples were grieving the death of Jesus and coming to grips with the ascension. It would be so frustrating to try to speak to people possessed of so many different languages. Instead they found the courage to quit hiding and speak in public. To their astonishment, they spoke in Aramaic, but every person heard them in their own language. The story of the tower of Babel was reversed. So much of our conflict is through our inability and outright refusal to speak and listen with focus and clarity. Pentecost points us to the possibilities of the spirit of peace. Memorial Day rightly has the spirit of honoring the spirit of courage and commitment of the fallen. For the days after, we can make bold statements for peace and support candidates who will support the needs of veterans with money and services and not lip service. The rubber hits the road in being more aware of conflict resolution models at home, school, work, and church. In some ways, it is easy to sign a petition, join a demonstration, even write letters for public commitment to peace. Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers. Yes, sometimes, it requires war to ensure a lasting public peace. Every day, we neglect to learn the ways of peace in more personal, concrete ways. Perhaps the best parade we could create for memorial Day is a parade of peacemakers who honor the fallen in war with the pipes of peace in our own community.

Devotions Week of May 27 '12

Pentecost-May 27-this day always feels a bit forced tome in the mainline churches. It does not have the weight of Christmas and Easter. So we try to dress it up, but to little avail. It is one of the weak spots in being spiritual and not religious. We are not good at developing ritual from scratch; we require ways of passing along traditions. Of course, the spirit is not bound by ritual, either, as the spirit expresses utter surprise and freedom, even as it contains the order of creation and binds all with love. Memorial Day-In my hometown, we always managed a parade, and flags decorated yards, children received popsicles, and we headed to the graveyard for the solemn playing of Taps. Our little town had given up so many to war. We had people hwo remembered WWI and of course WWII, and those difficult struggles of Korea and Vietnam that hung like a pall over most of my school years. Tuesday-Ps. 104 was the psalm for Pentecost. In a way it is a surprising one, as it is a hymn to creation’s diversity. The Spirit seems to prefer a profusion of diversity, instead of the dull uniformity of the assembly line. We know much more bout the blooming diversity of creation. We are also witness to an astonishing loss of diversity in biology in the last century. To what degree do we succeed and fail as caretakers of this planet’s environment? Wednesday-Reformed Roundtable is now a regional group and a local group of clergy and elders who wish to have some serious discussion about bible and theology. This time, I get to lead a discussion on a little book by the great Douglas John Hall, Why Christian. He walks a young seeker through the elements of the faith in an alluring, careful way. What to you are the critical components of faith that need to be held and examined with special care? Thursday-What doe sit mean to be a “non-anxious presence?” Ira Kent Groff reminds us tha tit is not the absence of anxiety. it is being able to monitor one’s responses and seek to be a stable, calming influence in difficult situations. He continues to maintain that prayer that keeps us centered on the presence of God in any circumstance can keep us from reacting unhelpfully to anxiety. We do no one any good falling into its clutches. Friday-bitterness is a basic element of our sense of taste. It seems to be a basic component of our internal make-up as well. Like shame, bitterness is easily conjured up with a difficult experience. When Naomi returns home to Bethlehem she asks \to be called Marah, bitterness. When all turns out well in the end, she takes back her name meaning joy or pleasantness. Where do you hold bitterness? When has bitterness turned into sweetness? Saturday-Sweetness is the opposite of bitterness, of course. Like anything, too much of it can be difficult whether in dessert or a saccharine cliché. It robs bitterness of its power. if we think of faith as dutiful and punitive, it is difficult to appreciate this sense of sweetness in the faith. What parts of the liturgy allow you to say ‘taste and see the Lord is good?” What elements of life itself are especially sweet to you? What are some sweet

Pentecost 12-Ezek 37, john 16

On Pentecost the Spirit the language of the apostles to be instantly translated into different languages to further common understanding. When we of a certain age hear the argot of teenagers, either slang or technobabble, we sometimes fear that we are not speaking the same language. We need the Spirit to help us translate perhaps. After all, this is the great day fo the Holy spirit in the Christian community. Jesus speaks of the Spirit a good bit in this long goodbye to his friends. This is a spirit of truth. this is a spirit that lives and breathes new and deep messages through our lives all of the time. Spirit’s presence-Listen to the catechism the new members of the church examined. maintenance of baptism personal claim: “The Holy Spirit is the personal bond by which Christ unites us to himself, the teacher, who opens our hearts, the comforter who leads us to repentance, and empowers us to live in Christ’s service.As the midwife of the new creation, the Spriit arrive siwth the Word, brings us to rebirth, and assure su of eternal life. The spirit nurtures, corrects and strengthens us.” Some fear that the mainline church is a pile of dry bones. Perhaps they are correct, as older established churches continue to hemorrhage members, and our children prance off to different groups, or to none at all, with that horrid phrase, spiritual but not religious. They make a claim of assent to a faith that has claimed them since baptism. That very diversity is a demonstration that the spirit does not insist on lockstep patterns of life. Not that long ago, parents had a bag packed, ready to go to the hospital, to bring a new life into the world. Now parents sit in stunned realization that the same child is taking an adult step into the world and becoming a full audlt member of the church.In Paul’s world view, this claim of their baptism is of cosmic significance. Once again the separation of heaven and earth is breached, and the voice from heaven claims, these are my beloved in whom i am well pleased. Paul’s apocalyptic sense that the life and death and resurrection of Jesus turned a decisive chapter. I look around and fear that truth lies in tatters. With the press for speed, it is not surprising that reporting has more errors. It goes beyond that though. Ideological blinders close our minds, so we accept some things as factual and reject others out of hand due soley to our point of view.It was not long ago that we would have committed people to instiutions for saying things that are now publicized on the news programs. The christian faith skirts the issue by pointing to a single life as revealing the truth of God and human life to us in Jesus Christ. Led by the spirit these young people are claiming their citizenship papers in the commonwealth of heaven for themselves as active adult members in the community in which they were baptized. In our tradition, the spirit has touched their lives in a concrete, direct way that they share with us this morning. One of the remarkable things about the spirit is the willingness to touch us in a way that fits our personality and situation in life. The spirit realizes our growing edges and accommodates its energies toward them as we grow in the faith. They take a milestone step in their journey with God this morning. Those of us who are a bit older than they may tell them that presence continues.

Trinity sunday Ps. 29

Ps. 29 follows this psalm for Trinity Sunday. I’ve worked with it before, if you care to scroll through older posts. the Talmud had it read at Pentecost. 1) Heavenly beings are gods in Ps. 82, or perhaps angels in Ps. 148.IN NT parlance, perhaps we could call them powers. 2) Vv. 3-11 have mythic overtones, at least to me. Scholars such as Frank Cross certainly hear it explicitly as working with hymns to Baal in Canaan and reworking it to Israel’s God at least to some extent. The Ugaritic corpus contains some similar phrasing in hymns. (Our future son in law reads Ugaritic, as well as many other ANE languages, so I can now check things with him, or maybe not) 3) I need to work on Lebanon skipping, especially after the terror evoked by the preceding verse. Some take it to mean that the mountains are skipping about due to quakes. 4) for this and the preceding psalm 104 from last week, one could also consider using the great array of creation hymns in our books, especially ones that draw from these psalms as a wedge to enter into the material more easily. 5) Both of these are invitations to also consider contemporary science as it supports or undercuts the ancient view of God here. Preachers may be too quick to continue to adopt a romantic, benevolent view of God in nature and skip over the pain, chaos, and struggle in it and is picked up in the psalms as well.

Trinity sunday romans 8:12-17

Romans 8:12-17 (Trinity Sunday) 1) Obviously we get names/.titles for the Trinity here, so it is an appropriate reading. It shows an inter-relationship at work, so it fits the economic (household) external work of the trinity well. With titles, we are less likely to play games with numbers, the great pitfall of working with it. 2) The use of debtors fits the reformed version/Mathew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer well. In a time of economic crisis, it certainly could be an excellent move into grasping the apocalyptic dialectic or division of flesh and spirit. 3) How are the works of the body death dealing? How do you explain life giving factors of the spirit without falling into a spiritualized, abstract view of Christian life? 4) How do we know we are led by the spirit and not another power? 5) How do you work out this adoption/life/confidence v. slavery/death/fear notion? A sermon on fear, its reality and its cure, could be a compelling one. 6) Notice that the Spirit bears with witness with us in a seemingly c-operative endeavor. 7) I truly worry about how we employ vv 17-18 for the suffering. Suffering people do not need their troubles to be minimized. 8) I would think that one could employ this language for a political sermon about the powers that be.

Rom. 8;22-27

Pentecost Rom. 8:22-27 1) Obviously we start with a cosmic maternal image. Groaning and birth pangs notice are words used with a sense of together, a chorus of sound. . Most of us think of apocalyptic material as end times material, but Paul here sees it in the Birth of a new age. 2) Are we to read the redemption of our bodies as a new birth? Is it a present reality on the way or does it mean until the end times or our deaths? 3) On hope, we move beyond optimism into much deeper territory. When is hope illusory? Springsteen: “is a dream a lie that don’t come true/or is it something worse?” 4) A bold sermon, an enacted one, could result from v. 26. How do we communicate with sighs too deep for words? Spend some time thinking about, praying over what it means that the very sprit of god intercedes for us. 5) What sense do you make of v. 27 in terms of the spriit’s intercession? Should we consider those prayers to be answered as they accord with the will of God? John 3:1-17 This does not jump out at me with Trintiarian notions, until I stop and consider it. By the way, consider the Fiddes book on Participating in God, or Cunningham’s These three Are One, or Gunton’s the Triune Creator. 2) The issue of new birth and creation certainly captures Trinitarian concerns, as does the lifting up of the Son toward the end. 3) The famous end of the passage captures the character of the Trinitarian God well. Consider Torrance on the work of the trinity always being unified.

Ps. 104 notes

1) I wonder if wisdom here is personified as in Prov. 1-9, especially 8. 2) v.25 enjoys the diversity of creation. Notice it is not measured by human need or appreciation. 3) Leviathan was a fearsome beast, but the sea is so immense it has it as a playground. Even Leviathan seems a child in God’s creation. shaq means to play with, dance with, mess around with. 4) As part of creation we all look to god for sustenance. 5) Notice we all mourn without the presence of God (29) this is also striking as god takes away the breath/spirit from these living beings. 6) A sense of natural renewal, perhaps, then is evoked in the next verse. 7) God’s glory picks up the old theophany themes of smoke and earthquake as part of the glory/gravitas/presence of God. For Christians it is good to recall that creation is a holy act of god as opposed to nature and natural forces. 8)In the face of this creation, the response is to sing and rejoice. 9) We live in a time of visual wonders. Consider Hubble pictures, or movies like Blue Planet to illustrate this psalm. 10) Limburg on Psalms (WJK:355) is a superb outline that someone lazy could well consider as a powerful set of sermon outlines.

Ezek. 37 notes

1) Jacobson in working preacher 2008 in textweek urges preachers to consider performing the message of the text with as much freedom and power as Ezekiel. CGI allows us to picture such a scene more easily now. 2) I hear echoes of God the artistic craftsman here a la Gen. 2. 3) Ruah=spirit=breath/wind/breeze/air as in Gk. pneuma. So it certainly fits a Pentecost reading. Work through a bit the various reasons for this conflation of images. What of its constant linkage to the very spirit of life? 4) I can’t help but hear ‘dem bones in my mind here. 5) Christians hear this as individual resurrection, but isn’t it far more likely to hear it as a corporate resurrection of the life of a nation? 6) Where do dry bones need to be vivified, or revivified in your situation? 7) Brueggemann’s notion of the church being in exilic territory is popular. I guess I buy it as a cultural comment, but I don’t think it can hold up to the actual displacement of exile. 8) At the same time, when do you feel as if a dream has died? 9) Is it possible that psalm language of bones and valleys has influenced the vision? 10) Pneumatology is a weakness with many of us. Word and World has a special issue in June 2003. I like Welker’s book, God the Spirit. 11) Why do you think Pentecost feels like such a forced celebration in the mainline churches? 12 Pentecost has gotten to be a time where we speak of the freedom, surprise, even disorderly, movements of the Spirit. Perhaps it is also time to speak of the Spirit working through institutions.

Notes i John 5:9-13

1) This section strikes me as repetitive, so i am at a bit of a loss here. 2)Why do you think the section has these particular deletions in lectionary? 3)Testimony could be witness or confession. work with this image in terms of divine testimony in Christ. What truths are being told? Does our testimony cohere with it? What does testimony in the heart mean? 4) Where do we make god a liar in other places? Is it related to taking the Lord's name in vain?> 5) What is eternal life to you? In this life, right now, what is eternal life, without reference to heaven? 6) What doe sit mean to have or not have life in the Son? 7) Look at Moltmann on the son as one sent and Father as sender. 8) In our final verse, the reader is directly addressed. How do we do that now with different media?

Sermon Notes May 13 I John 5, John 15:89-17

John 15:9-17 Jesus says, no longer do I call you students/disciples but friends. The metaphor into specific relationships from the vine and the branches is now extended . Friendship presumes a basic equality. That is why I stand against the notion that parents can be friends with their young children. They are parents, not buddies. Friendship are chosen, or at least emerge from common experience. Jesus moves from the more unequal position of top-down teacher to student, disciple, image and speaks of friends. For some reason pop culture images of friendship have been circling around inside. In songs we have you’ve got a friend, thank you for being a friend,. Bette Midler sang you’ve got to have friends as does Elton John about the road being lighter when you have friends along the way.The eminent philosopher Bruce Springsteen sing I’ll wait for you/should I fall behind, wait for me.” At graduation for the Indianapolis children’s choir, the seniors would sing Friends by Michael W. Smith. Movies, too, see friendship and important relationships-Return of the Secaucus seven, Big Chill, In that film the Jeff Goldblum character says that he always felt his best when he was with this group of people. Four seasons. TV had Lucy and Ethel, the work friendships of MASH and Mary Tyler Moore, or the comedies from Happy days to Friends, How I Met your Mother, or Big Bang Theory. Joy is promised too in this ode to friendship, divine friendship. In surveys, joy does nto appear to be the first word to leap to mind when people describe christians. Gasow said a friend never gets in your way unless you are going down the wrong path. (Greek view of friends)When I was a kid we emphasized integration and openness to having friends from a variety of backgrounds. Now being inclusive has a more mandatory feel, and we have reacted against. it. We are now in a more affinity-based period, and our ambit of friendships seemed to have grown smaller. The unitive push of romance I don’t feel in friendship, so it is not the same soul in different bodies but 2 distinct selves who occupy the same social space, 2 souls who have found common ground. Addison wrote that friendship doubles our joys and divides our griefs.Proverbs 18 reminds us that a good friend may well stick by us closer than our deepest kin. Buddha spoke of friendship having a mutual sympathy. I realize that we often say that a sign of a good friend is that we can be apart for a good while and pick up where we left off fairly easily. I suppose that is true, but it is also true that neglect has left a lot of our friendship by the roadside. Jesus Christ calls himself our friend. How do we nurture that friendship? Perhaps we sing What a Friend We Have in Jesus in church or to ourselves.; I was reminded by one of my classmates back at Princeton that a brilliant attorney who left to study with us used to hum Blessed Assurance when he would get stressed, so it was like the soundtrack of Greek and hebrew classes.We can unburden ourselves to a friend and still be accepted as a friend. At its best, confession can be speaking with a spiritual friend to admit some wrong. What is therapy but having a professional friend weigh one’s troubles and perspective, to point out obstacles to well-being external or self-imposed?

Devotions Week of May 13

Mother’s Day holds a lot of power, whether our mothers are living or not. . Few holidays show the continuing bonds of love beyond death as does this one. Forgive the faults of your mother. Stand in awe at her virtues. If she is gone, honor her memory. If she lives, make sure she is acknowledged and appreciated. No gift can capture all of that, but joined with words and a hug, we are a good way down that road. Monday-We’ve been using some confessional material in worship, and I will lift some for this week’s devotions. The Scots Confession has some of the force and candor of the Reformation there. “The chosen departed…are delivered from all fear and torment, and all the temptations… to which we are subject tin this life.” this is the militant language of early reformers, ready and willing to draw lines. Tuesday- the Heidelberg Catechism was the Reformed material brought to the U.S. with the Dutch in New York. It was set up to fit 52 Sundays of material from which to preach and teach. Q. 58-what comfort does the life everlasting give you? A. “since I now feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, I shall possess, after this life, perfect blessedness, which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of moral ones conceived, and thereby praise God forever.” Wednesday-The Second Helvetic confession is a much more prolix document that reflects the elaboration of basic Reformed notions. My professor Edward Dowey would tear up a bit at the thought of the author of the confession, Bullinger. He saw him being faithful to God in the shadow of the great generation of the first reformers. It’s a more irenic confession than others.5.031 sees a benefit in the doctrine of providence in that we do not have to worry about the great impact of our actions. After all, the world is in god’s hands in the end. It is a salve for anxiety. Thursday-Ascension Day is rarely a big day in the Protestant traditions, even as it continues to be a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics. For forty days the disciples had contact with the risen Jesus, but now, no more. They were now in our situation. Jesus was not physically present to them any longer. Yet, the selfsame Jesus is untied with us through the Spirit, still out advocate, still on our side, and now his works are extended through the body of Christ, the church catholic, global, universal. Friday-The Barmen declaration was written at the start of a church state battle when the German State Church adopted Nazi policy in the name of being patriotic. A brave group of people formed a new church to counter this action and would soon be exiles or martyrs. Yes, the “state provides justice and peace….we reject the false doctrine that the state could order human life singly…but the church should not appropriate the characteristics, tasks and dignity fo the state, thus becoming an organ of the state. Saturday-In days gone by, Westminster was the confession of the Presbyterian Church and young people memorized its catechism. Many regard its first question as a classic. Q1. What is the chief end of humanity? A. our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy God forever.” How do we seek today to glorify god? More critically perhaps in our time, how do we enjoy God?

Mother's Day 2102 column

I know Mother’s Day has a lot of force to it, when I notice the card aisle at the store. They are packed, and anxious faces peer through card after card, as they hope to find the perfect one. Father’s Day just does not carry the emotional freight of Mother’s Day. I won’t even begin to compare the presents given on Mother’s Day in comparison to the fashion detritus that Dads receive in a month. Even with the changes in social roles in the last generation, it seems that mothers are the emotional centers of the household. Contemporary mothers often carry two full-time roles, a career outside the home and managing a household. All of that effort takes its toll. Women have trouble sleeping because a list of undone tasks nags at them, even as they morph into the dread “honey-do” list. They feel especially unappreciated and unrecognized for countless acts of kindness and care. Erma Bombeck said that in a mother judgment turns into compassion and understanding. So a lot of weight gets placed on Mother’s Day. We know a card, flowers, and a gift cannot adequately reflect a bow to their import, but the pressure is on. I was speaking with a group of women recently and they regarded Mother’s Day with a good deal of self-protection. If they did not have high expectations of the day, they would not be so disappointed. They had the wistful look of folks who had received blenders when they hoped for a cruise. When my mother would be dissatisfied with her presents yet again, I would tell her a story of a man who took his mother to an elegant supper for Mother’s day. to top it off, he wore one of the hideous ties she had gotten him for his birthday. Immediately, she looks at him and sniffs, “so what’s wrong? You didn’t like the other one?” As a spiritual practice, I would urge two for Mother’s Day. Forgiveness is one. Not even mothers are perfect. The demands on them are coupled with incredible shared expectations of perfection. Then we walk through life resentful for hurts and wrongs, real or imagined, minor or major. Second, I urge the practice of gratitude. Because the expectations are so entrenched, the vast amount of effort and emotional wear and tear on mothers has become part of the emotional and mental landscape. Write out some specific acts for which you are grateful write out some specific virtues you mother has demonstrated. Washington Irving wrote: “A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” Perhaps only Christmas prompts such a surge of memory as does this holiday. Consider making a timeline of events and attach a memory to them. Perhaps you can illustrate them with a photo like the new timeline on facebook. Memory is notoriously unstable. Reflect on those memories and see if you can deepen them by coming at them from a different standpoint than you usually do. Cherish memory as an uncommon gift. I watch our own mother slide into dementia, and her very self faded. I hope and pray that you will not only cherish memories on Mother’s Day but also make some good memories to store away for the future. May this year provide a template for wonderful memories yet to be made.

notes I John 5:1-6

1) We start with a new position/status/relationship, even source. Believers are born of God. right away he goes further to have us consider the relationships we have with this new family. After all, this letter is written within a storm of conflict. 2) Again, we are in this welter of loving god and neighbor. My generation tends to dislike the word obedience, with its power dimensions. Where are you on it? 3)John anticipates this and notes the commandments are not burdensome, like the yoke of Christ. Is this accurate though? 4) Notice the non-violent nike (victory) our faith conquers is victorious over the world. I assume the world here is as much a mindset as a physical reality. 5) That victory gives even the downtrodden much heart. 6) We get into a deep Trinitarian move again with the Spirit and the water and blood. this could be a good time to examine our sacraments. I came from a Catholic background, and it stuns me how poorly we work with 2 sacraments, let alone. 7) Note that water and blood poured out from the side of Jesus at the cross in the gospel of John.

Friendship column on May 4

n 1933 Church Women United started celebrating a May Friendship Day. It promotes ‘creative and healing relationships.” I find it an excellent idea. Recently, I officiated at a funeral where a gentleman recalled a friendship that spanned an adult lifetime. We don’t give the value of friendship its due, maybe especially in this facebook age of “friending” and “de-friending” bare acquaintances. I speak of the family as the crucible of our lives. Surely friendship deserves a similar designation. Other than the binding nature of inheritance, what we say of family often applies to friendship. Some of our most cherished memories are with friends. Big events, such as going on a crusie or a trip, often seem more meaningful when celebrated with good friends. Indeed, so many important memories are tied to the presence of friends. We often say opposites attract, and that does apply to friends too I suppose, Yet, I see friendship as born of affinities more than differences. The ties that bind are shared perspectives or traits, and they are cemented by common experiences. Men will sometimes consider marriage when they find a relationship where the woman seems much superior to them, and somehow still like them, somehow seem interested. (the male ego is a fragile thing indeed.) We use sports metaphors, such as “she’s out of my league” or my favorite, “you really outkicked the coverage.” At times, friendship breaks the boundaries of gender, class, career and grow in time. think of the biblical friendship of David and Jonathan. We get a bit of a vicarious thrill when we are friends with someone we consider superior. I am grateful that we don;t feel superior to our friends, even when society would note the social divisions that usually prevent relationships. friendship, in the end, bespeaks equality, an equality that blurs and bends the boundaries we struggle to defend. As graduations approach, I go back to the passage read at our graduation from seminary. We read from John 15: 15 where Jesus says that he calls them disciples, students, no longer, but friends. It continues to astonish me. The Incarnate One calls us friends. Maybe more astounding, Jesus calls me, me, a friend. the very thought washes over me in a vicarious wave of respect. rodney Dangerfield was such a longstanding hit, because, as Jack Benny told him, he had struck a universal chord. At one time or another, everyone feels unrecognized and disrespected. The hole in the soul is answered in Jesus, who wishes to befriend us. How do you imagine we can reciprocate that offer of friendship. When have you lived out the hymn, What a Friend we Have in Jesus? Arnold Gasow said that “ a friend never gets in your way unless you’re going down.” that sense of loyalty and commitment is at its heart. Camus noted that he may not be willing to follow ro to lead, so he pleaded that one “walk beside him and be his friend.” the later 20th century philosopher, Bruce Springsteen sings “I’ll wait for you/should I fall behind, wait for me.” Every relationship requires nurture and care. I have always disliked the common phrase that they need work, as it makes a relationship sound like a work project, or heaven forfend, a “honey-do list.” Some friendships live with the Christmas card and e-mail. Others require a call, and some require presence, a meeting.Use this friendship day to go over friendships. Who were your first friends? As Emerson noted, how has “the choir of friends over time periods” changed? Have you held on to some friendships throughout life? Do you regret losing some friendships. How have you coped with the death of friends? Recall, say five, friendship highlight reels. What puts your friendships to the acid test? Where and when have you been grateful for the presence and acts of friends?

Devotions Week of May 6

May 6-Ps.22 served as a template for some of the Passion events. Like most laments, it ends in hope. V.26 looks to a day when the poor shall be satisfied. We continue to live in its promise that posterity will proclaim deliverance to generations yet unborn (31). V. 39 makes this passage a good reading for Eastertide. Monday-Memory is unstable. It is not like a videotape but more like an image being photoshopped where ti can be altered by the passage of time and experience.The good news is that we cna adjust our memory to focus less on the pain and more on good parts. I love the idea in process theology that our lives are kept intact within the memory of God. Tuesday- A new Groff piece mentioned that we have a choice when faced with a hurtful moment. We can keep it alive with bitterness or we can transform it by making it a spur to action.I was just reading about a young girl who started an organization against bullying. When have you let bitterness fester in your soul? How do you handle grudges? When have you used a hurt to help yourself or others as motivation? Wednesday-Air travel is wonderful, as I do not like to drive long distances, but it has lost its glamor. With the long wait times and crowded planes, it feels like the name of one of the companies, an air bus. As made in the image and likeness of God, we deserve more respect than being herded about like cattle. When have you received or felt properly respected and recognized? When have you been hurt by lack of recognition? Recall that God does note and recognize all that you do. Thursday-An acquaintance of mine put out on facebook that he was getting sick after workouts. I could not believe the flood of advice that poured in, but no one, no one told him to go to the doctor. People were put out with me when I gave that as my response. the internet has many values, but it has deluded us into becoming amateur physicians. Part of humility is realizing our own limitations in knowledge, emotional range, or advice. Friday-forgiveness is a fundamental christian virtue and practice. I was so pleased hwo well the confirmation students discussed it on Sunday. I just witnessed the pain of being unable or unwilling to forgive in the family members of a difficult person who died. Their grief was as much about being unreconciled to their faults and expectations as to the death itself. Learn to let go of resentments and bitterness. Learn to let og of the desire for revenge. Learn to “live and let live.” Saturday-Lately, some interest in Protestant circles is growing around the biblical concept of theosis/divinization, where we will become like Christ.When do you think we will follow peter’s notion of becoming partakers in the divine nature? Don’t rush to say heaven. Is it not a continuation of sanctification, of growing more holy, in the here and now? Where have you sensed Christ in us? Where have you sensed a move toward holiness in your own life?

sermon notes 5/6 I John 4:7-21, John 15:1-8

May 6 John 15:1-8, I John 4:7-21 This is one of those Sundays when we have such an array of passages that I scarcely knew where to start. At this point, I want to work with the natural image of the vine and connect it to the great evocation of love in I John. We were assigned the vine passage to introduce our planning session for the new organizational structure of presbytery for the 21st Century. Some stressed Christ of course, but others went from there to stress the relationships, the connections made with this image all the way through. This organic image speaks of an inter-relationship, of the vine and branches. It also indicates that to think we can go off on our own, depend on our own resources, is the kiss of death. Unconnected to the vine, we wither and perish. Whenever I get hung up on working through my image of God, when I deal with my underlying suspicion of God’s disappointment and frustration with me, I go back to this passage and its signal statement: God is love. You take some theology classes in seminary and can get so sophisticated that this three word sentence can get lost, but it is the very heart of our conception of God in Christ.Again, I heard some folks, mostly men, again criticize the mainline churches for emphasizing love. this time it was on two grounds: people need fear to be motivated and that love was too weak a word to speak of God.So, I urge us all to converse with this section of I John. Putting the passages together, we find God in the relationships, in the connections of love. What feeds the church is the life of Christ flowing through all of us together. God is a gardener here. I have heard it said that a good marriage often occurs when a gardener marries a garden. the love of God lives in the core of a marriage.Our vision is obscured with that signal fact. Young marriage is fueled by hormone and attraction, middle age love by children and grandchildren perhaps, so perhaps it becomes most evident in a long term marriage, where the couple can finish each other’s sentences and speak in a sort of code, where they know each other’s habits and preferences, and where they take care of each other and look past the limitations with an easy acceptance. After all, many Presbyterian weddings begin with the words that those who abide in love abide in God and god abides in them.We find the living god in our relationships. Greg told me a great story a while back. He and Carol operated a program to work with a bell choir, and they developed a color coded system to help with the cuing of ringing the bell with the notes. A woman came up and said that her deaf child had never been in a group before and it was a good experience. that little girl grew up to get a doctorate and part of her research agenda is developing and charting the impact of group activities for various disable groups of folks. We touch a life and it ripples out into the world in ways we could not imagine.(data mining??) To abide can mean to dwell to live in, to remain with. It has such a sense of mutuality of the vine and the branches. I like it as it is a living image, not a mechanical one, or one that can slip easily into hierarchy of who is on the bottom and who is on top. while Jesus is ascended, he remains through the spirit, the paraclete. God is present in the love we share together and in the church.

I John 4:7-21 notes

1) God is love is the lynchpin of my image of God. When I get confused or uncertain, I return to this.The primary evidence is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. 2) God's love is evident among us, what NRSV translates as for us. In other words, yes Jesus loves me, but Jesus loves us. 3) In the new textweek, Dr. Peterson is careful to say God is love but love does not equal God. Fair enough, but I would urge the notion that love does indeed emerge from the character and nature of God.Elsewhere this passage has God's love being completed, find its goal/end/telos in our mutual love. 4) God abides/ dwells in/remains in our love. Stop for a bit and reflect on this extraordinary statement. 5) Perfect love casts our fear. Again, I think we are in umplumbed depths here.What is that perfect love? How does love cast out fear/ How does fear interfere with love? I think Shirley Mac lane said that fear keeps a stranger form becoming a friend.Notice the point about fear and punishment. Why does the church use fear then? 6) We encounter atoning sacrifice/propitiation again. What elements of god would require propitiation by the One Sent? 7) Notice the emphasis on the Sprint in this section. 8) What do you make of placing God's love first?

Aril 29 devotions

April 29 Sunday-I’d like to go back to last week’s Psalm 4. I always note its words, be angry but do not sin. Notice it is in the imperative mood. Anger is expected as part of our emotional makeup. Anger is a vital emotion, but how we manage it becomes the issue. Anger leads to harsh words and actions that can diminish, even kill, a relationship. Uncontrolled anger or anger channeled into evil action is a root of all sorts of trouble. How have you learned to control anger while at the same time admitting its presence? Monday-I am scheduled to be finished with radiation treatment by now. We live a ritually impoverished life in our time, so I am going to work on a ritual for marking the end of my radiation therapy. At this point I plan to read some Scripture on healing and hope and perhaps a good Celtic blessing. I plan on an action of release and relief and may burn my appointment schedule. Have you created some rituals? What are areas in your life that seem to cry out for a ritual experience? Tuesday-May Day, Law Day, Holocaust memorial, International Workers Day all fall on this date. I’ll pick up law Day, not as popular as it once was, especially in the schools. In religious terms, it is a good reminder that god is a god of order. God is impartial, Scripture tells us. Justice is a primary political virtue, where all are treated with equity and fairness, apart from personal biases of the authorities. It is for good reason Luther called the legal system the left hand of God and Calvin praised public service as the most noble of callings. Wednesday-I am going back to Princeton for the first time in a long time for a conference on Romans. Already I get to say hi to some old teachers. So, memories come flooding back. What place from your past have you visited lately? How did it confirm and violate your memories? do you have osme religious memories that you prize? Do you find you tend to go back for those or are they of more recent vintage? Thursday-National Day of Prayer-Part of me resists this day, as I figure every day is a day of prayer and what purpose does it serve to declare a day. Presidents have often proclaimed days of prayer, but Pres.Truman signed a law calling for an annual day and Pres.Reagan signed a proclamation for the first Thursday in May. Friday-Friendship Day is an event of Church Women United to emphasize creative and healing activities. Friendship is worthy of a special day. Who were your most meaningful friends of childhood? How about your youth? Now? How are friendships similar and different from family relationships? Both seem to me to be about acceptance. I am always struck by the contention of Jeuss in John that he would no longer speak of disciples but friends. Imagine. Jesus is calling us to an relationship of relative equality in friendship. Saturday Since I am going to be working on Romans, let’s look at ch. 7:14-25 where Paul takes aim at a notion most Americans hold dear, free will. He sees us not as free actors but in bondage to forces beyond our power of choice, beyond our power to resist. As Luther said, the so called free will is in bondage to powerful forces. It continues to be true that the darkest region on this planet, the least mapped out, is the interior of the human being.