Sunday Ps 85 has one of my favorite images at the end-where righteousness (right relations) and peace shall kiss.Such intimate imagery often makes us uncomfortable, since we rarely think of such matters in terms of intimacy.what other ways could we express that thought? Have you seen it happen? How would you like to see it happen? why do you think this is an Advent psalm?
Monday-In the movie of Harper Lee's classic book To Kill a Mockingbird, young Scout tells her father Atticus about being upset on her first day at school. He says, "You never really understand another person until you understand things from (his or her) point of view, until you climb inside (their) skin and walk around in it." In some mysterious way, that's what Christians believe God has done in Jesus, and calls us to do. Ira Kent Groff
Tuesday-from Abbey of the Arts-Could you pause right now, for just 5 minutes, quieting your thoughts and breathing deeply? (yes, even just 5 minutes can offer deep refreshment if you give yourself over to it) What might you discover?
Wednesday-"In the beginning . . . the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep" (Genesis 1:1-2). In other words, God started with nothing, zero, and out of it brought everything.In the end, says John, "I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it; from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them" (Revelation 20:11). In other words, there is zero again, and out of it God brought a new heaven and a new earth. Perhaps more than for anything else, God is famous for calling something precious out of something that doesn't even exist until God calls it. At the beginning of each one of us it happened, and at the end of each one of us maybe by God's grace it will happen again.~originally published in Whistling in the Dark and later in Beyond Words
Thursday-Mirth is God's medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it. Grim care, moroseness, anxiety----all this rust of life, ought to be scoured off by the oil of mirth. It is better than emery. A man without mirth is like a wagon without springs, in which one is caused disagreeably to jolt by every pebble over which it runs." Henry Ward Beecher
Friday-Miroslav Volf reminds us of a quote from David Kelsey-”we should worship God for God's own sake,not for what we get out of worship.: What do you think Kelsey means?How should worship reflect his point?
Saturday-Children struggle with the large questions of life, and we don’t often give them credit for that. We assume that they’re not capable of engaging in conversations that we assume are more philosophical and abstract. I don’t think that’s the case.What they don’t have is the language. It’s our obligation as educators, adults, clergy to give them the language. My feeling is that language is story, and so through story they are able to deal with these larger theological questions.Sandy Sasso
No comments:
Post a Comment