February 24: Lik 13:31-35, Ps. 27, Gen. 15,Phil 3:17-4:1
James Limburg starts off his comments on Ps. 27 by recalling a sign painted in Denver, “why pray when you can worry?” That’s our entry point this morning. Ps. 27 is one of the great psalms of trust, a companion ot Ps. 23.It is filled with images of security. this is not defensive crouch, however. this is no head in the sand, everything will be OK cry of denial. It fully realizes that life is fraught with difficulties, but it has trust that God is with us, to strengthen and uphold us. I have thought a million times that if we can accept that, we approach those who are bullies or unkind, or hurtful in a far different light..
In the primitive ritual of Gen. 15, is an an image of separation and reunion.Ritual joins the secular and sacred dimensions of awareness.This ancient ritual seems to me to be about separation and joining. Abram has been promised an heir, a child. He is accumulating goods, but he will have no direct heir. Janzen notes that fear not deals with each stage in our psychological devleopment, and that it all is based on the fundamentla virtue of trust.vv2-3 may be a questioning of waiting so long for a promise to be fulfilled, so at this time of year, it is a Lenten question.Is the promise in the stars but not from them? Are they fated to childlessness? To believe root is a support, a pillar, to nourish, or to trust..Janzen sees the ritual as an act of mutuality, of friendship, of parity. Though, divided, they are as whole as the two birds. In covenant the two disparate beings are joined.Notice we are in a netherworld of vision and sleep, an altered state of consciousness.
We have many images of the divine.I just noticed that the birds in the Abram story are joined with another avian figure in the gospels. Jesus selects a surprising one today. Jesus commanded us to be not anxious, to not worry, because worrying does not add an inch to the span of our lives. That same Jesus selects a most anxious image. Mother hen is a significant image to me. It has the sense of being careful of its young, but a mother hen is mostly noise and flying feathers against a predator. Its cries are ineffectual. It is not a powerful image is it? I think of Chicken Little a bit here as well. I lived through this image a bit this week, as our youngest called to tell me that she woke up with pain and almost passed out in the shower, and I worry about our eldest and her doctoral exams. We often speak of a parental quality in the divine.To me being a parent is a constant struggle with anxiety and learning to let go in a sea of anxiety. I hoped it would go away when they were adults, but not so far. I have realized that parenting was saying a series of goodbyes right when the kids walk away from you, even as they check to see if you are still within eyesight range, or when they talk and say I can do it myself.
We receive Communion again today, the fundamental ritual of Christians. As voting is a basic act of citizenship, Communion is the basic ritual of our lives together. It is both individual and corporate, of keeping body and soul together, a declaration of the interplay between the elements of creation and human transformation. It is food for the journey. Hear the ending words of the psalm again, if you were taken by the musicality of the presentation and lost some of the words.
further notes: this sermon exploded on me, so please check additional work on Gen. 15 on the blog.
I was also taken with the citizens of the commonwealth of heaven. What are marks of citizenship in our time? Note the President in the SOTU 2013 address ended with evocations of citizenship. When I was a child, we had more public civic activities than we do now, parades, addresses, and the like. What elements of “civic religion” remain, as in the flag salute and national anthem? What are marks of church citizenship? Chrysostom had a good line aobut entering into concern for the public welfare as a piece of christian ethics.
Ps. 27 opens us up to the polarities of danger and security in its verses. Limburg does a good job with it in his WBC commentary. Why do you think it lies so close to 23 and 24? When do psalms of trust not work for you and when do they?
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
OT Notes for March 3 Is. 55:1-9
1) Is. 55 is a much beloved passage. If you go with the tripartite division of the large book, this would be toward the conclusion of part 2.
Oh, before I forget, we are using Patricia Tull's study of OT texts for Lent through thoughtful christian. so far, they have been great, and she derives some different spiritual practices from the readings. She selecfts choose well as the suggested practice for this reading with Ps. 63.
2) My Oxford study bible notes more than a hint of Wisdom's invitation in Prov. 9.
3) The waters are free, but aren't they priceless? In Lent, how is it appropriate or helpful to link this to the living water of John 4 or the water toward the end of Revelation? Now immediately, it moves toward food. Apply that to both social justice and spiritual need.
4)The first part of v. 2 is a stirring Lenten invitation to an acceptable fast from our insane pace and frentic rushing about. I suppose the second section could appeal to gourmands. Is it a licit move to speak of spiritually rich food, given the spiritual junk food we tend to consume?
5) Is v. 5 a different view of a messianic task that the power of Israel?
6) v. 6 recalls Dt. 30 on God's closeness. Where do we seek God where God cannot be found? when do we wish god were far away?
7) vv8-9 is a stirring reminder that this forgiving, intimate god is most decidedly not a mortal, not a cosmic pal. I think of the Barthian "wholly other" phrase when I read this part.I also think of Lamott's quip that" when god hates the same people we do, then we know we have made god in our image."
Oh, before I forget, we are using Patricia Tull's study of OT texts for Lent through thoughtful christian. so far, they have been great, and she derives some different spiritual practices from the readings. She selecfts choose well as the suggested practice for this reading with Ps. 63.
2) My Oxford study bible notes more than a hint of Wisdom's invitation in Prov. 9.
3) The waters are free, but aren't they priceless? In Lent, how is it appropriate or helpful to link this to the living water of John 4 or the water toward the end of Revelation? Now immediately, it moves toward food. Apply that to both social justice and spiritual need.
4)The first part of v. 2 is a stirring Lenten invitation to an acceptable fast from our insane pace and frentic rushing about. I suppose the second section could appeal to gourmands. Is it a licit move to speak of spiritually rich food, given the spiritual junk food we tend to consume?
5) Is v. 5 a different view of a messianic task that the power of Israel?
6) v. 6 recalls Dt. 30 on God's closeness. Where do we seek God where God cannot be found? when do we wish god were far away?
7) vv8-9 is a stirring reminder that this forgiving, intimate god is most decidedly not a mortal, not a cosmic pal. I think of the Barthian "wholly other" phrase when I read this part.I also think of Lamott's quip that" when god hates the same people we do, then we know we have made god in our image."
Week of Feb. 24 devotions
Sunday February 24-Ps.27 is one of the great prayers in that rich prayerbook of the Bible.Like so many great Scriptural passages, it speaks of fear in a way that speaks to me.I always notice how it starts from a brave place, but then descends into fear as the enemies continue.Prayer does not always move in predictable ways, but neither does life. No matter what, this great prayer asserts a sense of trust in god, in good times or in bad.
Monday-I just read an Alban Institute note describing a married couple at 10:30 at night.the woman is pushing plates into the dishwasher and feeling overwhelmed. Gently, her husband, who has been doing yard work and home repair after work gently asks her, can you be finished yet? I love his question. so often, we need to give ourselves permission to admit that we can quit, even for the time being, even for today.
Tuesday--I attended a workshop of leading with theological assumptions at the forefront.of church life recently. We spoke of stewardship, and it was a confused discussion, but with some good points.One good image was to employ the image of a Communion service to other parts of our material lives: so that it would be one of abundance, but where a little is plenty, of a banquet, of generosity, of self-giving.
Wednesday-One of my mental images for the troubles in life will be symbolized by the Carnival cruise ship Triumph. Not only did the poor people lose power, hot food, and bathrooms, but the tow rope broke, and then people being taken to New Orleans had the bus break down. When does your life feel like that crusie? do what do you tend to attribute such a disaster? How do you cope with it?
Thursday-I am mentally percolating on a thought about the decline of the older Protestant churches in America.We emphasize feeling from the heart a lot, as an individual charism. We tend to talk a lot about the failure of religious institutions.In other words, we told people for years that going to chruch was not particularly improtant, or we emphasized elements, such as emotional repsonse, that may not fit the simple requirement of sabbath worship.
Friday-We are using Patricia Tull’s fine series for Lent in the Wednesday morning Bible class. She gave me a different approach to the virtue of patience. She uses it to mean that we take the long view, the wide perspective. Like it or not, we cannot control the future, but we do affect the lives of people living in the future by our choices right now.
Saturday-Recently we read of the deeply strange, ancient ritual of the covenant between Abram and God in Genesis 15.I think we live in a ritually impoverished time. We feel as if we have to make up new actions instead of relying on old rituals, or even modifying them a bit. Rituals take ordinary acts and makes them into gateways for a divine dimension in life.We do get a sense whn a riutla works in a spiritual sense, but part of them always need to evade careful analysis. How do the two great sacramental rituals of baptism and Communion work as rituals for you? How would you tinker with them?
Monday-I just read an Alban Institute note describing a married couple at 10:30 at night.the woman is pushing plates into the dishwasher and feeling overwhelmed. Gently, her husband, who has been doing yard work and home repair after work gently asks her, can you be finished yet? I love his question. so often, we need to give ourselves permission to admit that we can quit, even for the time being, even for today.
Tuesday--I attended a workshop of leading with theological assumptions at the forefront.of church life recently. We spoke of stewardship, and it was a confused discussion, but with some good points.One good image was to employ the image of a Communion service to other parts of our material lives: so that it would be one of abundance, but where a little is plenty, of a banquet, of generosity, of self-giving.
Wednesday-One of my mental images for the troubles in life will be symbolized by the Carnival cruise ship Triumph. Not only did the poor people lose power, hot food, and bathrooms, but the tow rope broke, and then people being taken to New Orleans had the bus break down. When does your life feel like that crusie? do what do you tend to attribute such a disaster? How do you cope with it?
Thursday-I am mentally percolating on a thought about the decline of the older Protestant churches in America.We emphasize feeling from the heart a lot, as an individual charism. We tend to talk a lot about the failure of religious institutions.In other words, we told people for years that going to chruch was not particularly improtant, or we emphasized elements, such as emotional repsonse, that may not fit the simple requirement of sabbath worship.
Friday-We are using Patricia Tull’s fine series for Lent in the Wednesday morning Bible class. She gave me a different approach to the virtue of patience. She uses it to mean that we take the long view, the wide perspective. Like it or not, we cannot control the future, but we do affect the lives of people living in the future by our choices right now.
Saturday-Recently we read of the deeply strange, ancient ritual of the covenant between Abram and God in Genesis 15.I think we live in a ritually impoverished time. We feel as if we have to make up new actions instead of relying on old rituals, or even modifying them a bit. Rituals take ordinary acts and makes them into gateways for a divine dimension in life.We do get a sense whn a riutla works in a spiritual sense, but part of them always need to evade careful analysis. How do the two great sacramental rituals of baptism and Communion work as rituals for you? How would you tinker with them?
Sermon Notes Dt. 26;1-11, Lk. 4:1-12
February 17 Lk. 4:1-12, Dt. 26:1-11
Our confirmands examined the Ten commandments with some care to start to get a handle on christian ethics. the one that often catches us up is the commandment against an internal state:coveting.We find security in possessions. Dt. 26 deals with its deep roots with the ritual offering of the firstfruits of the soil.Our OT passage gives a valuable antidote or corrective to our grasping nature, the reception of a gift. Further, they are placed in a narrative to help them see how far they had come. My father was a wandering Aramean. They made the tough transition from being migrants or nomads for a settled existence. (see Breuggeman on the land as gift) You owe me. I deserve this. I worked long hours for this.
Knowing this pattern, the tempter tries a similar tack with Jesus.Just as in regular life, the first temptations are not evil per se. we have such a childish view of evil, where we expect someone wearing a black hat or offering a decadent cocktail of sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle. Once the choice had been made, the successive choices become more malevolent, but easier over time. The tempter, as his diabolical name suggests wants to twist the good out of shape, one of the fundamental Hebrew notions of sin. The diabolical tempter is willing to use the bible toward his own ends, so any weapon if fair game. If the moral contortionist can do his work, then Jesus may be unable to live into the different way that God imagines a world could work.Turn these stones into bread. Would Jesus use his powers for economic gain as well as feeding the body? After all, his constituency would be basically poor. Think of what you could do with such material abundance.Not that long ago, it occurred to me that the temptation of materialism was a potent one for Jesus, along the lines of :think what good you could do with providing all sorts of material goods to be able to deliver to others on a regular basis. It would be along the lines of a pro ballplayer buying their folks a new house and car with the first big contract. (Note CC essay on if. Jesus the new Adam is facing the same test or temptation as the old , original Adam.) Every one of these is a form of putting God to the test.
As Douglas John Hall has said, the great thing about believing in god is that we can dispense with all of the other things that clamor to be gods in our lives. One of hte great gods of our time is scarcity, the dread fear that we will not have enough to live, to do what we want. Such an attitude attacks our sense of stability and security; so we cannot even see sufficiency in our hunger for more, more, more. It certainly attacks its opposite number, abundance.
At the end, Luke says that the tempter waited until an opportune time. We are not told when this is. It could be anytime, I suppose. maybe when Jesus was tired, or overwhelmed by the numbers seeking healing. Maybe it was Judas or any number of times during the close of his life. In Last Temptation of Christ, it comes hene Jesus was being taunted at the cross, and he sees that if he listens to the taunts, he could live a long, happy, healthy life with family and friends around him when he would die an old man, full of years as the Scripture says. The novelist and filmmaker help us to uncover a deep truth. We do sometimes have to make decisions about competing goods, as we cannot have both sometimes.a thousand times a day we are tempted away from the kind of person God envisions and the kind of person we would like to be. Will we skip up? Yes. Will we fall? No. We do not live by ethical power alone, but by the grace of God.
Our confirmands examined the Ten commandments with some care to start to get a handle on christian ethics. the one that often catches us up is the commandment against an internal state:coveting.We find security in possessions. Dt. 26 deals with its deep roots with the ritual offering of the firstfruits of the soil.Our OT passage gives a valuable antidote or corrective to our grasping nature, the reception of a gift. Further, they are placed in a narrative to help them see how far they had come. My father was a wandering Aramean. They made the tough transition from being migrants or nomads for a settled existence. (see Breuggeman on the land as gift) You owe me. I deserve this. I worked long hours for this.
Knowing this pattern, the tempter tries a similar tack with Jesus.Just as in regular life, the first temptations are not evil per se. we have such a childish view of evil, where we expect someone wearing a black hat or offering a decadent cocktail of sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle. Once the choice had been made, the successive choices become more malevolent, but easier over time. The tempter, as his diabolical name suggests wants to twist the good out of shape, one of the fundamental Hebrew notions of sin. The diabolical tempter is willing to use the bible toward his own ends, so any weapon if fair game. If the moral contortionist can do his work, then Jesus may be unable to live into the different way that God imagines a world could work.Turn these stones into bread. Would Jesus use his powers for economic gain as well as feeding the body? After all, his constituency would be basically poor. Think of what you could do with such material abundance.Not that long ago, it occurred to me that the temptation of materialism was a potent one for Jesus, along the lines of :think what good you could do with providing all sorts of material goods to be able to deliver to others on a regular basis. It would be along the lines of a pro ballplayer buying their folks a new house and car with the first big contract. (Note CC essay on if. Jesus the new Adam is facing the same test or temptation as the old , original Adam.) Every one of these is a form of putting God to the test.
As Douglas John Hall has said, the great thing about believing in god is that we can dispense with all of the other things that clamor to be gods in our lives. One of hte great gods of our time is scarcity, the dread fear that we will not have enough to live, to do what we want. Such an attitude attacks our sense of stability and security; so we cannot even see sufficiency in our hunger for more, more, more. It certainly attacks its opposite number, abundance.
At the end, Luke says that the tempter waited until an opportune time. We are not told when this is. It could be anytime, I suppose. maybe when Jesus was tired, or overwhelmed by the numbers seeking healing. Maybe it was Judas or any number of times during the close of his life. In Last Temptation of Christ, it comes hene Jesus was being taunted at the cross, and he sees that if he listens to the taunts, he could live a long, happy, healthy life with family and friends around him when he would die an old man, full of years as the Scripture says. The novelist and filmmaker help us to uncover a deep truth. We do sometimes have to make decisions about competing goods, as we cannot have both sometimes.a thousand times a day we are tempted away from the kind of person God envisions and the kind of person we would like to be. Will we skip up? Yes. Will we fall? No. We do not live by ethical power alone, but by the grace of God.
Column on george Washington
n the old days, we celebrated the 22nd of February as Washington’s birthday. His visage is all over money; his monument in Washington will be repaired from earthquake damage; we see him at Mt. Rushmore; towns (and a state) and streets and schools bear his name. The Missouri History Museum has been filled with children on field trips visiting a good exhibition on his life. (Most noteworthy perhaps is a computer-aided reconstruction of his appearance as a young frontier surveyor).
Few people demonstrate that we can make a decision to change personality features. In some ways, he comes close to a new construction of a self, a nearly self-made person. While we need not present our young citizens with fables of Parson Weems about cherry trees, the good writer’s impulse was good. We can use models of virtue, even as we recognize that no human being is ever perfect.
Washington had a terrible temper, and he was determined to control it. It was a lifelong struggle, and of course, he slipped sometimes, but he did control that urge toward impulsive rages.
He had a sense of the propriety and aloof distance people could seek in a leader of his time, and he took on that model. He built a persona based on being a gentleman in his society. He made himself an exemplar of behavior, especially on the public stage. It gives hope and aspiration to our Lenten disciplines, no?
He drew inspiration and models from literature.The great model was Cincinnatus, the farmer who left his fields to lead ancient rome and then returned to his home. Napoleon counted Washington the greatest man who ever lived as he could walk away from kingship and public power. as Garry Wills noticed long ago, Washington’s great use of power was knowing when and how to relinquish it. He walked away from the possibility of becoming a king of the newly freed colonies. He relinquished his military commission to the congress; he faced down a planned military coup; he established the two-term presidential tradition when he easily could have been president for life. He had the sense of history and self-confidence to create a formidable array of talent in his first Cabinet.
He was aware of the utter incommensurate view of being the “father of a free people” and the keeping of slaves. He worked assiduously to save enough money so that he could negotiate the difficult Virginia method of freeing slaves under his legal purview (see An Imperfect God by Wiencek). While the author of the Declaration of Independence grew more and more dependent on the stilted economics of slavery, Washington agreed with those who said he owed posterity a different legacy.
When Washington died, a series of painting presented him in apotheosis, as if he were being assumed into heaven. Look at how the famous images of him also include symbols of the roman republic or a founding document of our republic, the Constitution. Part of me sneers at these heroic postures, but I do understand the impulse to create a firm foundation for the legitimacy of our new experiment in governing.
In our time, we are uncertain about how much we should sugar-coat our history as we teach our children, our future fully functioning citizens. After all, a remarkable confluence of talent forged this nation. At the same time, part of their legacy is the continuing struggle on racial matters as the aftermath of slavery. It strikes me as a timid approach to socialization to make cartoon figures out of historical figures. Weak impressions of our institutions would demand that a fuller understanding of the virtues and vices of our history somehow be excised from developing minds. History is made of imperfect people rising to the challenges of their day.
Few people demonstrate that we can make a decision to change personality features. In some ways, he comes close to a new construction of a self, a nearly self-made person. While we need not present our young citizens with fables of Parson Weems about cherry trees, the good writer’s impulse was good. We can use models of virtue, even as we recognize that no human being is ever perfect.
Washington had a terrible temper, and he was determined to control it. It was a lifelong struggle, and of course, he slipped sometimes, but he did control that urge toward impulsive rages.
He had a sense of the propriety and aloof distance people could seek in a leader of his time, and he took on that model. He built a persona based on being a gentleman in his society. He made himself an exemplar of behavior, especially on the public stage. It gives hope and aspiration to our Lenten disciplines, no?
He drew inspiration and models from literature.The great model was Cincinnatus, the farmer who left his fields to lead ancient rome and then returned to his home. Napoleon counted Washington the greatest man who ever lived as he could walk away from kingship and public power. as Garry Wills noticed long ago, Washington’s great use of power was knowing when and how to relinquish it. He walked away from the possibility of becoming a king of the newly freed colonies. He relinquished his military commission to the congress; he faced down a planned military coup; he established the two-term presidential tradition when he easily could have been president for life. He had the sense of history and self-confidence to create a formidable array of talent in his first Cabinet.
He was aware of the utter incommensurate view of being the “father of a free people” and the keeping of slaves. He worked assiduously to save enough money so that he could negotiate the difficult Virginia method of freeing slaves under his legal purview (see An Imperfect God by Wiencek). While the author of the Declaration of Independence grew more and more dependent on the stilted economics of slavery, Washington agreed with those who said he owed posterity a different legacy.
When Washington died, a series of painting presented him in apotheosis, as if he were being assumed into heaven. Look at how the famous images of him also include symbols of the roman republic or a founding document of our republic, the Constitution. Part of me sneers at these heroic postures, but I do understand the impulse to create a firm foundation for the legitimacy of our new experiment in governing.
In our time, we are uncertain about how much we should sugar-coat our history as we teach our children, our future fully functioning citizens. After all, a remarkable confluence of talent forged this nation. At the same time, part of their legacy is the continuing struggle on racial matters as the aftermath of slavery. It strikes me as a timid approach to socialization to make cartoon figures out of historical figures. Weak impressions of our institutions would demand that a fuller understanding of the virtues and vices of our history somehow be excised from developing minds. History is made of imperfect people rising to the challenges of their day.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Devotions for Fe/ 17 week
Sunday February 17-Ps.91 is today’s psalm because, of all beings in the universe, tTe tempter tries to use it with Jesus. He warps its prayer for protection by trying to turn it into a demand by jesus to put God to the test. On one level, a prayer for protection is a good. At a different level, when prayer becomes demand then we are in new territory.Making demands turns a relationship into a mechanistic exchange, so it attacks the basis of love.
Monday-I have a friend who uses the word, exhausted, a good deal. I think he means that he is stressed and feels as if he is at the end of his rope.He is a classic example of someone whose spiritual tank gets empty along with his emotional and mental reserves. I think many of us share his malady. We seek spiritual energy as we burn the candle at both ends. Perhaps, this points us to the great Lenten discipline of recovering Sabbath as a basic practice, one of rest and recovery.
Tuesday-This is Mardi Gras (big Tuesday, fat Tuesday) it marked a celebration in some cultures before the time of Lenten privation of some sort. In other cultures, it is shrove tuesday to practice the rite of Confession. Some people made pancakes to have a last taste of sweet or to say goodbye to fat and eggs for a while. Sometimes, it is good to let go a bit. We go so from pole to pole, abundance or privation, so we do well to find comfortable middle ground.
Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lenten season.One of the traditional readings is Joel 2. It throws down the gauntlet against the notion of legalistic Judaism.While ritual is almost always part of worship, especially communal worship, our passage has a polemic against ritualism. If a heart isn’t torn apart with the ritual of tearing a garment in repentance or mourning, then it is a symbol without content or force.
Thursday-We are encouraged to consider making some spiritual resolutions at the start of the year. In Lent, the church has traditionally offered a chance to practice some sort of spiritual practice for 40 days of lent, not counting Sundays. If you could wave a wand, what spiritual gift or attribute would suddenly appear in you? Do you think you could take some initial steps toward that vision?
Friday-We celebrated this as George Washington’s birthday.He would not be called an orthodox christian. he seemed to absent himself from Communion, even though he was a member of a church vestry. He did have a faith in Providence, the hand of God made visible in human affairs. After all, what military strategist would have said that a fledgling nation could hold off the great british combined forces for years and years?
Saturday-I was reminded of a great description of depression by william Styron recently, “ a poisonous cloud descending.” We have made great strides for this serious condition with therapy and medicines but have a long way to go. Sometimes, i wonder if the famed “dark night of the soul” was a symptom of depression in great spiritual writers and mystics. Facing the darkness is always part of the spiriutal life, but we are not made to live within the shadow every day.
Monday-I have a friend who uses the word, exhausted, a good deal. I think he means that he is stressed and feels as if he is at the end of his rope.He is a classic example of someone whose spiritual tank gets empty along with his emotional and mental reserves. I think many of us share his malady. We seek spiritual energy as we burn the candle at both ends. Perhaps, this points us to the great Lenten discipline of recovering Sabbath as a basic practice, one of rest and recovery.
Tuesday-This is Mardi Gras (big Tuesday, fat Tuesday) it marked a celebration in some cultures before the time of Lenten privation of some sort. In other cultures, it is shrove tuesday to practice the rite of Confession. Some people made pancakes to have a last taste of sweet or to say goodbye to fat and eggs for a while. Sometimes, it is good to let go a bit. We go so from pole to pole, abundance or privation, so we do well to find comfortable middle ground.
Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lenten season.One of the traditional readings is Joel 2. It throws down the gauntlet against the notion of legalistic Judaism.While ritual is almost always part of worship, especially communal worship, our passage has a polemic against ritualism. If a heart isn’t torn apart with the ritual of tearing a garment in repentance or mourning, then it is a symbol without content or force.
Thursday-We are encouraged to consider making some spiritual resolutions at the start of the year. In Lent, the church has traditionally offered a chance to practice some sort of spiritual practice for 40 days of lent, not counting Sundays. If you could wave a wand, what spiritual gift or attribute would suddenly appear in you? Do you think you could take some initial steps toward that vision?
Friday-We celebrated this as George Washington’s birthday.He would not be called an orthodox christian. he seemed to absent himself from Communion, even though he was a member of a church vestry. He did have a faith in Providence, the hand of God made visible in human affairs. After all, what military strategist would have said that a fledgling nation could hold off the great british combined forces for years and years?
Saturday-I was reminded of a great description of depression by william Styron recently, “ a poisonous cloud descending.” We have made great strides for this serious condition with therapy and medicines but have a long way to go. Sometimes, i wonder if the famed “dark night of the soul” was a symptom of depression in great spiritual writers and mystics. Facing the darkness is always part of the spiriutal life, but we are not made to live within the shadow every day.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
OT Notes on Gen. 15
I just noticed that I am going back over lectionary material handled in the last cycle. I think that one can return to those. I was hit by both the similarities and difference sin my approach to studying the passages, but i do think this one is better than the older one, except for a mention of the Michael Jinkins book to young people and the struggle with doubts.
1) I find this a deeply mysterious passage. One of the better angles on it for me is Gerald Janzen's ITC book on Genesis, Abraham and All the Families of the Earth. He explores it with some psychological depth and acuity.He uses Erikson stage theory to speak of the fundamental basis of trust, and that word is at the root of we call faith in Hebrew Scriptures. He does a fine job speaking of the vision/dream state as a descent into the abyss of one's consciousness or psyche.
2) I really struggle with getting a handle on the vision of the ritual in the passage. I cannot pin it down, but I do get a sense that I am in the presence of an ancient ritual, and an ancient story, as if I would be a field anthropologist Some take it as a sort of self-curse, may we be split in half, if we depart from our pledge, our bond. we could read it positively, only together are we whole.If either would be correct, note the depth of the divine promise here. I have a suspicion tha the animals chosen have some symbolic import, butI do not have a handle on that either.I note
3) I always like to emphasize that righteousness here seem to be much closer to right relations than following a list of rules.
4) Why does the NRSV keep the word, reckon, as to me it sounds like Jethro talking to Uncle Jed in the Beverley Hillbillies. In Hebrew, it has a wide semantic field: to think, plan, discern, devise,to intend, to mean something, to value. The important v. 6 then takes on different shades of meaning, no different meaning entirely on how one reads this small phrase.
5) The incisive, elegant writer Patricia Tull just gave us a look at this passage in her new thoughtful christian series for Lent.She turns the story into one of time perspectives, as indicating a different type of Lenten discipline, of living within the long view.It is part of her general theme, an acceptable fast from Is. 58.The virtue of patience gets wrapped around her ocncern that as Abram is given a vision of the future of his progency in 400 years, so we make deicisons that affect future generations four hundred years hence.
1) I find this a deeply mysterious passage. One of the better angles on it for me is Gerald Janzen's ITC book on Genesis, Abraham and All the Families of the Earth. He explores it with some psychological depth and acuity.He uses Erikson stage theory to speak of the fundamental basis of trust, and that word is at the root of we call faith in Hebrew Scriptures. He does a fine job speaking of the vision/dream state as a descent into the abyss of one's consciousness or psyche.
2) I really struggle with getting a handle on the vision of the ritual in the passage. I cannot pin it down, but I do get a sense that I am in the presence of an ancient ritual, and an ancient story, as if I would be a field anthropologist Some take it as a sort of self-curse, may we be split in half, if we depart from our pledge, our bond. we could read it positively, only together are we whole.If either would be correct, note the depth of the divine promise here. I have a suspicion tha the animals chosen have some symbolic import, butI do not have a handle on that either.I note
3) I always like to emphasize that righteousness here seem to be much closer to right relations than following a list of rules.
4) Why does the NRSV keep the word, reckon, as to me it sounds like Jethro talking to Uncle Jed in the Beverley Hillbillies. In Hebrew, it has a wide semantic field: to think, plan, discern, devise,to intend, to mean something, to value. The important v. 6 then takes on different shades of meaning, no different meaning entirely on how one reads this small phrase.
5) The incisive, elegant writer Patricia Tull just gave us a look at this passage in her new thoughtful christian series for Lent.She turns the story into one of time perspectives, as indicating a different type of Lenten discipline, of living within the long view.It is part of her general theme, an acceptable fast from Is. 58.The virtue of patience gets wrapped around her ocncern that as Abram is given a vision of the future of his progency in 400 years, so we make deicisons that affect future generations four hundred years hence.
Friday, February 8, 2013
OT Notes Dt. 26:1-11
1) Dt. is often a neglected resource I first point us toward a fine book by dennis Olson of Princeton Seminary, Dt. and the Death of Moses.He reminds us tha tthe book is not only a recapitulation of the 10 Commandments but a long commentary on them. By this point, we are looking at the coveting issue. As Olson says (115) we are in the place of stewardship being an antidote to coveting.
2) this passage stands against american individualism or the Romney version in the last insipid campaign, I built it. It shows the social corporate nature of possessions and our responsibility toward inheritance (nahalah) of all types.Look at how v. 6 incorporates the praying people into the story itself.
3) first fruits can be a provocative image. In our time, what would be the equivalent? Note tha tit is a ritual offering that seems to be returned to the one offering it in ch. 14.
4) The almost credal recitation af the offering is a remarkable attempt to bring past tradition into the present and the future. Indeed, that is one of the goals of the entire book, is it not?
5) Gift pervades this passage. What sort of relationship exists between giver and receiver? the book, the Giver keeps rattling around in my mind as I write this. Valentine's Day just happened before this passage is read. One could do a serious or hilarious bit on the giving and receiving of Valentine's day presents.
6) Notice at the end of the passage the community nature of a celebration and who gets invited.
7) how are we still wandering Arameans? Where are we treated harshly? Where could people pray this against us? What would the land of milk and honey look like to you right now? (Now I think of Springsteen's evoking of the promised land in some of his songs)
2) this passage stands against american individualism or the Romney version in the last insipid campaign, I built it. It shows the social corporate nature of possessions and our responsibility toward inheritance (nahalah) of all types.Look at how v. 6 incorporates the praying people into the story itself.
3) first fruits can be a provocative image. In our time, what would be the equivalent? Note tha tit is a ritual offering that seems to be returned to the one offering it in ch. 14.
4) The almost credal recitation af the offering is a remarkable attempt to bring past tradition into the present and the future. Indeed, that is one of the goals of the entire book, is it not?
5) Gift pervades this passage. What sort of relationship exists between giver and receiver? the book, the Giver keeps rattling around in my mind as I write this. Valentine's Day just happened before this passage is read. One could do a serious or hilarious bit on the giving and receiving of Valentine's day presents.
6) Notice at the end of the passage the community nature of a celebration and who gets invited.
7) how are we still wandering Arameans? Where are we treated harshly? Where could people pray this against us? What would the land of milk and honey look like to you right now? (Now I think of Springsteen's evoking of the promised land in some of his songs)
Devotions Week of Feb. 10
Sunday February 10-Ps. 99 shouts to God the king, Holy is
he. What does holiness mean to you? How would you explain it to a six year old
child? For me, God’s holiness is god being set apart in both degree and kind.
We recite words of the holy church, but what do we mean? To me, the holy has a
sense of the numinous, the awe-inspiring, the reverent. Where do you encounter
the holy. where do you seek it?
Monday-February wears on me. Resilience is a virtue that
seems to me to decline a bit as we age. Not only do our muscles refuse to have
the spring that they once enjoyed, but the wear and tear of life’ troubles make
sit harder to spring back from adversity as well. Sometimes, nothing more than
a break can restore our resilience. Sometimes, looking back at past success
gives us renewed strength.
Tuesday-Lincoln’s Birthday used to be a separate holiday for
schoolchildren when I was young. To tell the truth, I don’t recall that we did
nearly a complete a job as we could have to explain why we felt compelled to honor
him so. I keep going back to his astonishing skill with words and the depth of
his moral reasoning. This day, please consider reading some of his work or read
of him and allow yourself to marvel at the growth in this frontier youngster
toward Mt. Rushmore
Wednesday-Ash Wednesday starts the period of intense spiritual
preparation that we designate as Lent. I love the name, as it refers to spring
and spring planting. What spiritual seeds would you like to see grow in your
life this year? It may well be that a spiritual New Year’s resolution has
fallen along the roadside. Perhaps then we could do some re-planting. Sometimes
a cold snap will kill off the hardiest of plantings, and we start again. In our
frequently spiritually undisciplined lives, we all need some structure. let
lent provide some this year.
Valentine’s Day always alarmed me a bit. I never felt as if
I had a handle on what a properly romantic card and present should be. After
all, what card, what present can seek to express the fullness of romantic love?
I never felt as if I hit the nail on the head with the presents. It cannot be
an accident that Song of songs was turned by the church into a way of
approaching divine love through the template of romantic love: its intensity,
its yearning, its sheer power.
Friday-The Wiseman Bible Group looked at psalms of lament
last week. the study materials noted that laments are not reflected in the
liturgy as much as their prevalence in the psalter would indicate. To me they
are the great example (see 13, 22) of putting anything in our life into the
safe envelope of prayer addressed to our God. What are some hurts that you
would do well to include in prayer? What are some community, even national or
global hurts that drive you to your knees?
Saturday-I’ve been reading a book on changing habits in my
attempt to lose some weight. It suggests a variety of simple tools to help the
process. One is merely telling someone in an e-mail how the day went for the
goal. In our minds, when we see a succession of successes that helps our
perseverance. When we note that we did not do so well, that helps us
distinguish between a slip and a fall.
column on vacation to san diego
A while ago, I decided to flee winter for a bit, and I did
so this past week. I thought of going on a cruise, but as cheap as they are,
they were not at the bargain basement level I desired. Our lovely youngest
daughter told me that at my advanced age, I need to start checking things off
the bucket list, so I thought of going to the Florida Keys ,
but I again balked at the price. The, I heard the siren call of San Diego , and off I
went.
I love going to new places, but dislike getting there. I am
constantly amazed at the surliness and disrespect of the TSA folks in a service
field. I remember when flying was considered to be glamorous, but now it seems
as if we are herding cattle on to the well-named air bus. On our airline, they
first boarded passengers form their peak list. Those of us who flew coach seemed
to be in steerage, or the nadir and descent level. On the other hand, I was so
grateful that the planes were on time, especially, as I had to change planes to
arrive.
On Monday, we went whale watching. Not only did we encounter
three grey whales, but we witnessed what the biologist assured us was mating
behavior. I wondered if whales had trouble with aging, and if they had to
consider Valentine’s Day presents. An unexpected bonus was a huge school of dolphin,
(the biologist called them a pod) where we saw hundreds of them, young and old,
filling the sea around us. We saw sea lions lazing on buoys, and saw pelicans
and al sorts of aquatic birds skimming the water and floating on the currents.
As a minister, I often see things through a religious lens, and these wonders of
creation needed little help from that reference point.
I laughed as the local weather was bemoaning that we would
have some drizzle and htat temperatures would be below 60. They were demonstrating
the type of warm clothes children would need to wear if the evening temperature
would dip below forty. I changed my plan to go kayaking along the seashore, as
the thought of me in a wetsuit was appalling. So, I shifted plans and went to Balboa Park
One day I marveled at natural creation in the open water,
but the next day I marveled at the parade of human creativity that could build
such a modern Eden
that honored everything from the arts to air travel. I was at the perfect age
to fall in love with space travel, as I was just starting school during the
mercury program and followed it fairly closely until the first moon landing.
Even at 15, I was amazed at how quickly the bloom was off in time for the
second moon landing. To see the tiny Mercury capsule and the small biplanes
that started the era was thrilling. We got to see the heat-scarred Apollo 9
craft, so tiny to be designed for a lunar flight. The smart phones we carry
have more computing capacity than that capsule.
Then I looked above and saw a model of a predator drone. It
does seem part of our condition that we turn blessings into curses with
startling immediacy. Vacations take us away form the everyday, but we carry our
perspectives with us in new places. Yet, vacations blast us out of the rut of
the walls closing in and let us walk in a wider world.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Feb. 3 Notes I Cor 13.
We are a bit ahead of the calendar for Valentine’s Day. This morning we heard a passage that has been used in wedding after wedding, this great hymn to love. It is a hymn of more than pretty sentiments though, as it looks squarely at obstacles to love as well as its manifestation. It sees arrogance in attitude and rudeness in action as real impediments to its life, and perhaps poison that threaten its very life. It is a testament to the sense of community in church that we so easily switched this passage to the intensity of newly married love and can barely conceive it as a message to a church community.
Love often moves toward an exclusive special quality.That’s why Jesus almost gets lynched after his sermon started so well in Luke.(I must admit that Jesus’s sermon getting a bad reaction has given me some hope at times). Recall that he is doing this sermon for the home folks. Instead of being told how special they are, they hear about the love of God that spreads out beyond the constricted borders of an unsure heart.With their hearts and minds constricted, they are fearful that God will be as stingy as they are; there will not be enough blessings to go around.They cannot bear to hear that others will get blessings as well as them.
Even though we use this chapter for weddings, it is addressed to the church in an aspirational vein for the fractious Corinthian community.This morning let’s just pick two to emphasize in our community here. We don’t emphasize the virtues for living in Christian community or family life, for that matter, nearly enough.After all, the couple is not hearing the words of their wedding sermon, so Sunday may be a better place to dig into the chapter a bit more fully. Let’s start with the very first set of virtues patience and kindness.Paul is about building up the bonds of community. Look at most of what he says as that which supports loving relationships or threatens to undermine them. Both these virtues help produce an environment for love to grow and deepen over time. Here patience is makrothumia, being forebearing, putting up wiht the foibles of another.It has a sense of constancy, of longsuffering( in older translation), of being slow to take offense or seeking revenge. As my mother declined in her oind, my patience was sorely tested. the biggest thing that helped my patience was to stop expecting her to be the woman I knew but to see her as becoming more childlike.
In Greek, kindness is chrestotes, and a number of people must have heard a similar sound to Christ. It had the sense of someone looking out for you, of someone being a good person of integrity, so by extension to do good things for you, perhaps where the walk matches the talk. Kindness is a word that has lost a lot of its punch over the years. I keep coming back to its linkage to the word for kin, or maybe child. How should we treat family and by extension, others, would be kindly.A recent piece in Christian Century took some real care with the notion of kindness.We speak of a kindly disposition and of acts of kindness. People continue to hold on to the idea of random acts of kindness being an antidote to random acts of violence. I enjoyed a recent collection by Pete Hamill and he recalled a bus driver letting him ride on the NJ turnpike for free. Every time he sees a bus, he remembers that act of kindness.Love is the chain that connects and maintains constant acts of patience and kindness.
Love often moves toward an exclusive special quality.That’s why Jesus almost gets lynched after his sermon started so well in Luke.(I must admit that Jesus’s sermon getting a bad reaction has given me some hope at times). Recall that he is doing this sermon for the home folks. Instead of being told how special they are, they hear about the love of God that spreads out beyond the constricted borders of an unsure heart.With their hearts and minds constricted, they are fearful that God will be as stingy as they are; there will not be enough blessings to go around.They cannot bear to hear that others will get blessings as well as them.
Even though we use this chapter for weddings, it is addressed to the church in an aspirational vein for the fractious Corinthian community.This morning let’s just pick two to emphasize in our community here. We don’t emphasize the virtues for living in Christian community or family life, for that matter, nearly enough.After all, the couple is not hearing the words of their wedding sermon, so Sunday may be a better place to dig into the chapter a bit more fully. Let’s start with the very first set of virtues patience and kindness.Paul is about building up the bonds of community. Look at most of what he says as that which supports loving relationships or threatens to undermine them. Both these virtues help produce an environment for love to grow and deepen over time. Here patience is makrothumia, being forebearing, putting up wiht the foibles of another.It has a sense of constancy, of longsuffering( in older translation), of being slow to take offense or seeking revenge. As my mother declined in her oind, my patience was sorely tested. the biggest thing that helped my patience was to stop expecting her to be the woman I knew but to see her as becoming more childlike.
In Greek, kindness is chrestotes, and a number of people must have heard a similar sound to Christ. It had the sense of someone looking out for you, of someone being a good person of integrity, so by extension to do good things for you, perhaps where the walk matches the talk. Kindness is a word that has lost a lot of its punch over the years. I keep coming back to its linkage to the word for kin, or maybe child. How should we treat family and by extension, others, would be kindly.A recent piece in Christian Century took some real care with the notion of kindness.We speak of a kindly disposition and of acts of kindness. People continue to hold on to the idea of random acts of kindness being an antidote to random acts of violence. I enjoyed a recent collection by Pete Hamill and he recalled a bus driver letting him ride on the NJ turnpike for free. Every time he sees a bus, he remembers that act of kindness.Love is the chain that connects and maintains constant acts of patience and kindness.
Transfiguration 2013 Lk. 9, 2 Cor. 3, 4, Ex. 34
Before the internet, I heard an expression, you can’t judge a book by its cover. For intorverts, we said that still waters run deep. Our vision and ability to judge is severely limited. Here we are in the season of epiphany, the season revelation, of manifestation.It hit me hard this year that this Sunday forms a frame with Epiphany Sunday. the Magi did not grasp fully what was revealed to them through the stars, but now the disciples see firsthand a revelation of the full reality of Jesus through resurrection eyes. So we move back to Epiphany and forward to the resurrection. I think of transfiguration as an inner change made visible to others. Quite simply, Jesus Christ unveils, reveals the nature of God and of being fully human in this tough, but wonderful world.
Moses was in such close contact with the deity that his face shone, so he veiled the luster. It was a protective device to allow the people to quell their fear. Paul twists the story a bit and sees it as keeping the people in the dark. We live in a time when we have seen the thick veils placed over the heads of women in Afghanistan. the veil obscures their sight and of course obscures the sight of those looking at them in public.Paul goes on to make the excellent religious point that we all have the full relgious truth veiled from us, due to our mortality, the limits of our understanding and ability to apprehend the gravitas of God.In more stark negative terms, sin is a veil over our hearts and minds. It prevents us from seeing things with any sense of objectivity.It is at the root of our willingness to accord personal virtue ot our successes and personal fault to the fialures of outhers, the blaming of situation for our failures and attributing luck to the success of others.
Paul then says that we are on the road to clarity due to the way of Jesus Christ. The burka is gone, and we what we are meant for:freedom, freedom to live as god has envisioned us.Where the spirit of God is, there is freedom-Freedom transfigures people and whole societies. The very word freedom is a transfiguration of the meaning of the human. We are not made to be slaves but free people. years ago in a Star Trek episode they encounter a primitive group of people and the leader says, “Freedom-that is worship word.” Yes, given human nature, we often abuse it. Do we mean freedom from, or freedom to? What opposite of freedom would God’s spirit be opposed to? Christian freedom is exercised in the freed from bondage to powers other than God. Christian life is not only the moment of conversion, but it is the lifelong transformation of the self to more and more resemble Jesus Christ. It affords us the opportunity to become whom god envisions us to be at our best.
Freedom reveals who we are and meant to be. Years ago a project was called Free to Be, You and Me. We rarely live that out, do we? Instead we lived behind veils as impenetrable as any awful burka. We build up so many defenses, so many facades, that we don’t recognize ourselves after a while. We are convinced that no one can accept us as we are, who we are, so we hide behind a variety of veils and try to match them to what we think they may want of us.We then go so far as to try to deny to others the freedom to be themselves, the people God intends.
Moses was in such close contact with the deity that his face shone, so he veiled the luster. It was a protective device to allow the people to quell their fear. Paul twists the story a bit and sees it as keeping the people in the dark. We live in a time when we have seen the thick veils placed over the heads of women in Afghanistan. the veil obscures their sight and of course obscures the sight of those looking at them in public.Paul goes on to make the excellent religious point that we all have the full relgious truth veiled from us, due to our mortality, the limits of our understanding and ability to apprehend the gravitas of God.In more stark negative terms, sin is a veil over our hearts and minds. It prevents us from seeing things with any sense of objectivity.It is at the root of our willingness to accord personal virtue ot our successes and personal fault to the fialures of outhers, the blaming of situation for our failures and attributing luck to the success of others.
Paul then says that we are on the road to clarity due to the way of Jesus Christ. The burka is gone, and we what we are meant for:freedom, freedom to live as god has envisioned us.Where the spirit of God is, there is freedom-Freedom transfigures people and whole societies. The very word freedom is a transfiguration of the meaning of the human. We are not made to be slaves but free people. years ago in a Star Trek episode they encounter a primitive group of people and the leader says, “Freedom-that is worship word.” Yes, given human nature, we often abuse it. Do we mean freedom from, or freedom to? What opposite of freedom would God’s spirit be opposed to? Christian freedom is exercised in the freed from bondage to powers other than God. Christian life is not only the moment of conversion, but it is the lifelong transformation of the self to more and more resemble Jesus Christ. It affords us the opportunity to become whom god envisions us to be at our best.
Freedom reveals who we are and meant to be. Years ago a project was called Free to Be, You and Me. We rarely live that out, do we? Instead we lived behind veils as impenetrable as any awful burka. We build up so many defenses, so many facades, that we don’t recognize ourselves after a while. We are convinced that no one can accept us as we are, who we are, so we hide behind a variety of veils and try to match them to what we think they may want of us.We then go so far as to try to deny to others the freedom to be themselves, the people God intends.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Week of Feb. 3 Devotions
Feb. 3 Sunday-Ps. 71 is one of the few psalms written
explicitly from the perspective of growing older. This psalm has a great sense
of God being with us in all periods of our lives. it also sees aging as an
important place for continuing to be
able to speak of God to others. I often say that the relative quiet of aging
permits more fervent prayer than the harried lives of the middle-aged. As you
have grown older, where have you noticed improvements or decline in the quality
of your spiritual life?
Monday-Patience is a virtue I continue to work on. One of my
issues is that I have a little timer in my head that goes off when I think
someone should be finished with some task. I also seem to be overly sensitive
to what I consider rude behavior when people in a line seem to act as if they
deserve special treatment. One starting point is to admit the impatient feeling
and then have some ways to counter it. Often my impatience is a symptom that I
am feeling stressed about something else.
Tuesday-I’ve been thinking about politically correct speech
lately. I do realize that words do hurt. I realize that words create
stereotypes. It seems to me that we sometime equate words with actions. Speech
with which I disagree, to paraphrase Jefferson ,
“neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” It seems ot me that actions or
behaviors are of more concern. Isn’t that why we seek integrity, as in walking
the talk?
Wednesday- We talked about boundaries in church yesterday.
Yes, we are social creatures, but if we permit others to invade our privacy,
our choices, even our attitudes, it confuses things. We can keep our boundaries
to tight, impermeable and then buffer ourselves from life. We can keep them too
porous and act as if everything is our business, our fault, our concern. What
should we let in and what should we defend against?
Thursday- I am preparing for a short trip. I am looking up
material about the city and its environs: things to do, places to eat. I wish I
were that assiduous in preparing my spirutal maps. Planning for a trip has joy
and expectation connected to it, but spiritual planning feels like a dutiful
behavior to me. If you could snap your fingers and move your spirutal life ot a
new plane, what would it then look like? Come back to reality, what are some
ways to reach that place? Could you at least take a few steps in that
direction?
Friday-I’m listening to a radio station as I write this,
WTTS. They play songs A through Z for a while. Some psalms use a similar
format. It gives a sense of completeness, of having a chance to say your
speech. A-Z also has a sense of closure. When one reaches the final letter, is
it not time to move on? As a spiritual exercise, consider writing out an A-Z
prayer on some virtue or vice, some facet of your relationship with God, some
hope or frustration?.
Saturday-We had a talk at Rotary recently from Pere
Marquette’s naturalist on bobcats, eagles, and other wildlife in our area. We
are fortunate to have such a great facility in our area. When does wildlife
make you appreciate creation and when does it threaten something you hold dear?
How do you balance respect for creation and economic developments?
OT Notes Ex.34:29-35-transfiguration
1) Moses is a figure in the transfiguration account of course. In tradition, his lack of a burial site indicated an assumption into heaven.
2) one could work with the image of being in the presence of god transferred a radiance to Moses. We speak of people being radiant for a variety of reasons.
3)Notice how Paul turns or twists the veil image in his rendition of it in the 2 Cor 3,4 reading.
4) The quite rare word translated as shine could be related to the word for horn in Hebrew, so that is why some pictures of Moses have him with horns, as Jerome read it that way. At this point, make up your own jokes.
5) Is there a better description of intimacy with god than speaking with a friend, face to face? What affects our intimacy with God? How does the Incarnation affect it?
6) Would not Ps. 34 make sense as a reading (Janzen, p. 262)
7) Could we play with the veil in the temple and the veil of Moses?
8) When do you feel a spiritual veil between you and the presence of God/ when is God's will veiled? When are we veiled form ourselves? When is the veil more of a protective mask for our well-being?
9) In similar way, when do we see the light of God in our communities?
100 One could work with Moses the representative, the mediator as well. It could make a good topic to consider bridges and go-betweens in our lives.
2) one could work with the image of being in the presence of god transferred a radiance to Moses. We speak of people being radiant for a variety of reasons.
3)Notice how Paul turns or twists the veil image in his rendition of it in the 2 Cor 3,4 reading.
4) The quite rare word translated as shine could be related to the word for horn in Hebrew, so that is why some pictures of Moses have him with horns, as Jerome read it that way. At this point, make up your own jokes.
5) Is there a better description of intimacy with god than speaking with a friend, face to face? What affects our intimacy with God? How does the Incarnation affect it?
6) Would not Ps. 34 make sense as a reading (Janzen, p. 262)
7) Could we play with the veil in the temple and the veil of Moses?
8) When do you feel a spiritual veil between you and the presence of God/ when is God's will veiled? When are we veiled form ourselves? When is the veil more of a protective mask for our well-being?
9) In similar way, when do we see the light of God in our communities?
100 One could work with Moses the representative, the mediator as well. It could make a good topic to consider bridges and go-betweens in our lives.
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