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?
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