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