Sermon Notes Acts 11, Rev. 21 with a glance at Ps 148 and John 13

As we age we turn to the mirage of t. When we became a nation, voting was left to males  with property. Blacks were able to vote after the Civil War but southern states made it impossible. Women only received the national right in 1920 after  years of struggle. We had a program in schools of Americanization  In the 1920s a state passed a law forbidding parochial schools-German street signs were removed in Cincinnati-Back when I was born we just ruled on Brown v. Bd; women were not ordained to pastorates in the church.

The notion of a congregation or a community is one of a big family, no insiders, nor outsiders.Our denomination has been struggling with the issues of homosexuality since I was in college. This passage pushed me to consider if I was holding on to prejudice. God’s way seems to be one of knocking down walls of division and separation.fair percentage of our citizens in 2015 wonder if Muslims are part of the national fabric.

.Acts 11,All of his life Peter knew that his people were God’s chosen people. He may have been vaguely aware that some of the bible mentioned an opening to the Gentiles, the other nations. To his shock he was realizing that prophecy was actual in his lifetime, in this particular place. It was less that he had been wrong but more  that he saw things in a new way.Not only did he have a vision he is careful to catalog his experience with these new converts.Few images capture better the grand open space of salvation better than this image of the walls being torn down between people. I wonder why it was a vision. did he need to move beyond rational persuasion?In our time we are so taken with emphasizing the particular that we are leery of approaching general  even universal themes, but does not the notion of all being children of god have real resonance? We place so many walls, so many barriers between us.Both the previous scene in Acts 10 and Peter’s present speech mention “acceptance.” In Acts 10 God “accepts” all who fear God and work justice; here the Gentiles’ receive or “accept” the word of God. The same Greek root is used in both instances. “who am I to hinder god? (In Gk. this is a done deal, I cannot stand in the way of a divine decision.(Is word-rhema=to promises here?)

Transformation continues in the apocalyptic reading. John loves this passage so much that is a repeat from our reading in chapter 7. We get to talk this morning about the destination of resurrection: heaven.I am among those who stress resurrection life in the present so much that I am in danger of pushing heaven to the side.We live in a time of credulity about near death experiences, but we do not examine biblical images of heaven with much care. In part it is the Bible’s reticence to give much information,but we do get a few here toward the end of this revelatory set of visions.direct quote from Isaiah water of life again-alpha and omega-see I am making all things new. It imagines an end to the tension between God’s order and natural disorder.It imagines a  world where threat is gone. It imagines that the Lord’s prayer becomes fullness-on earth as it is in heaven-the barrier between and earth and heaven-the chasm between us and God is bridged and then filled.God pitches a tent with us, chooses to dwell with us in the big tent.This open-hearted God seems at cross purposes with the violence imagined earlier in the book.When we act as the good beloved community, we get a glimpse of the way god wants the world to look.

earth day column

Earth Day is the 22^nd, but its celebration moves into weekends. I noticed a number of churches doing Earth Day events in its time frame. Earth day festivals frame the weekends around it.

My primary environmental concern remains pollution. Most of the miners could not play with their children due to “black lung.” When I was growing up in Western Pennsylvania, we had “sulfur creeks’ running red. Lake Erie was considered dead. I didn’t know of the book, but I was aware that Silent spring knew that we were killing birds. The great symbolic moment for me was the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland catching fire.

Tim, a resident genius in one of our Bible studies, notes that ecology has become a secular religion for some. Personally, I have little patience for trying to recreate ancient rituals for Mother Nature and the flow of the seasons. On the other hand, if this movement has raised the issue of creation to the forefront of concerns, then Christian churches owe them a debt of gratitude. If they have moved us to see the creation as sacred, then they have altered the calculus we use to determine what we should or should not do with environmental impact.

My religious orientation gives a particular set of concerns to environmental issues. First and foremost, Christians speak of Creation. The National Council of Churches asks if we have become “un-Creators” by placing the Earth in jeopardy.

Second, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew calls pollution a sin as a crime against the natural world. God labored and labors long and well to help sustain this world. To use that religious language allows us to engage in ethical discussion in ways not usually available to us.

Perhaps the primary virtue of the Council of Churches statement on the environment is humility. I would extend their point. We need humility in discussing the environment. The right would do well to stop acting as if they understand science better than scientists. The left would do well to stop its preening as if it grasps the science only because scientists agree with their concerns about the environment. As limited beings, do we have the capacity, let alone the wisdom, to think that we can control the complexity of ecology and climate?

My own Reformed tradition has long advocated frugality and simplicity of life. It is the opposite of prodigal waste of resources. My mother was a Depression era person. From it, she drew a fundamental rule in our household: don’t waste.

Many people look toward dominion in Genesis as a command of power over, but it seems to have more of a shepherding, taking care of, being responsible for creation.  To subdue the earth is a tougher one, as it does have the sense of power over. The Bible is not romantic about nature: it is not all about pretty sunsets. It sees nature as a powerful force that does get out of balance, and it does threaten human life. Nature too is imagined to be transformed at some point. At the same time, it sees us as part of the natural order. Again in Genesis it cannot be an accident that Adam’s name is a play on adamah, soil, to get at our connection with nature.

The preamble to the Constitution speaks of ourselves and our posterity. The conservation movement has long sought to protect nature as a legacy for those who follow us. We do not live for ourselves; we do not live for the present moment alone. We seek to provide a legacy. What more vital legacy can we offer than a safer, more secure natural world? What way could we better respect the work of the Creator than by being caretakers of this precious planet?

Devotional Points for week of April 24

Sunday-Ps.148 is perfect for Earth Day weekend as part t of the concluding set of praise in the psalter. This time, it brings together all of creation in praise of God in its very pulsing life. We are part of a natural choir.

Monday-“At the root of humility is the Greek word humus, which means ‘earth’ or ‘earthiness’ – the earth that God made and called good, the earth from which God fashioned us.  Humility is the fundamental recognition that we each draw our life and breath from the same source – the God who made us and calls us beloved.” --- Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Tuesday-Hymn-Borning cry-To the best of my knowledge, this is the only hymn in our hymnals in which God sings to God's children. It has become treasured by so many because it gives a powerful message of God's unconditional promise to be with us from birth to death and all that comes in between. (I personally love that part about wandering where demons dwell.) It is sung at baptisms, growing up times, marriages, and yes, finally at death. God Pause

Wednesday-“As we become conscious of our metaphors for God, we learn which ones are life-giving for us, and which ones might be limiting or constricting. At different points along our journey, our images of God grow and change as we do.”
--- Christine Valters Paintner,

hursday-“It is not our memories but the person we have become because of those experiences that we should treasure. This is the lesson these keepsakes teach us when we sort them. The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.” - “It is not memories but the person we have become because of those past experiences that we should treasure. This is the lesson these keepsakes teach us when we sort them. The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not the person we were in the past. P.118” ― Marie Kondō, 

Friday-May we realize that they live not for us alone, but for themselves and for Thee and that they love the sweetness of life even as we, and serve Thee better in their place than we in ours. For those, O Lord, the humble beasts, that bear with us the burden and heat of day … and for the wild creatures, whom Thou hast made wise, strong, and beautiful, we supplicate for them Thy great tenderness of heart, for Thou hast promised to save both man and beast, and great is Thy loving kindness, O Master, Saviour of the world.― Patricia K Tull, 

Saturday-The room of love is another world. You go there wearing no watch, watching no clock. It is the world without end, so small that two people can hold it in their arms, and yet it is bigger than worlds on worlds, for it contains the longing of all things to be together, and to be at rest together. You come together to the day's end, weary and sore, troubled and afraid. You take it all into your arms, it goes away and there you are where giving and taking are the same, and you live a little while entirely in a gift. The words have all been said, all permissions given, and you are free in the place that is the two of you together. What could be more heavenly than to have desire and satisfaction in the same room?" From Hannah Coulter

Sermon Notes Acts 9:36, Rev. 7

April 17- The Wednesday morning class has been going through the book of Acts word by word, sentence by sentence. Tabitha  or Dorcas, gazelle, is what we could call  a saint, a model Christian, a good Christian woman. Like grieving people, they want to share stories about her. They cluth to keepsakes she made for them.256) Keepsakes are important. In Acts 9, the people show the things that Tabitha made for them. They don't have to be important or valuable in money. They are little sacramental tangible items that connect us to the person who has died.they are small incarnations of love.  What are some keepsakes that mean the most to you? Did arguments ensue over who would get certain keepsakes? Why do you prize certain keepsakes? Do they pick up an interest, a quality of your loved one? I saw a piece of Tim Allen's sitcom Home Improvement where Ernest Borgnine plays a widower who spoke of arguing with his wife over some ugly knickknacks she kept on the kitchen counter .He hid them, and she put them back. Did you get rid of them when she died? "No, you don't have to understand a woman, all you have to do is love her", he said in bemused resignation. We may feel pressure to get rid of belongings quickly after a death. After all, some items may be of real value to different people in your circle. While you are having the sale, you may also note that you do not want to part with some things, so keep them. In the movie, the Descendants, we see a family faced with continuing shocks as they come to grips with the coma of a wife and mother. A yellow blanket is over her the last time the family sees her to say goodbye in the hospital. In a coda, the ten year old daughter is watching TV with the blanket. She is joined  by her father and then her angry teen sister. They all share the blanket and the 2 bowls of different ice cream. 

The Bible is replete with the keepsake s of spiritual images. Here we get a classic reversal.  For Revelation, a dramatic new Exodus is being undertaken not in Egypt but in the heart of the Roman Empire. (See working Prescher here).  Led by the Shepherd-Lamb Jesus, God calls Christians to “come out” of Rome (Revelation 18:4), in the same way that the Israelites came out of Egypt.People who belong to the lamb’s multitude are those who have come out of the great thlipsis (“tribulation”). The “tribulation”  of Revelation’s audience was not state-sponsored persecution but rather the social, economic, and religious troubles facing the communities.Like a shepherd, God tenderly cares for the people -- a wonderful image for Good Shepherd Sunday. The verb “shelter”  has  the sense of God’s radiant presence as a canopy or  tent over us (see Ezekiel 37:27). Isaiah 49:10, the call to return home from exile: God’s people will not hunger or thirst on their journey through the wilderness, nor will any scorching wind or sun touch them (Revelation 7:16,).Now the Lamb Jesus now becomes also the shepherd, tending the flock, leading people to springs of water, and wiping away all their tears (a quote from Isaiah 25:8). Led by their Shepherd-Lamb, God’s redeemed people will come through the tribulation into God’s new Promised Land. We enter  the uncharted future with our memories. They may be reformulated and softened. In God’s stereoscopic view, our harsh memories can transform into agents of good. What looks like tribulation is turned into unanticipated joys.God hold our lives as keepsakes in the divine memory.

column on public v. private

When I go to our regional church gatherings, my mind tends to wander. This time, it settled on the decline of the public sphere as compared to the private sphere. I keep hearing about how a person from business is well-suited to the political arena. Years ago, Graham Allison noted that private and public administration are alike in all unimportant respects. The complexity and number of stakeholders alone in the public sphere, the public interest instead of profit combine to make it a different, daunting difference.

The inability of Springfield to arrive at a budget is illustrative of the issue. Private groups have tried to raise some money to deal with the ankle breaking hazard that mark the Gordon Moore tennis courts, when the state’s budget woes stopped a major grant in its tracks. We seem to have little trouble financing wars, but other public needs go begging. Indeed, we seem to wish to rely on private charity instead of making programs of public justice that could eliminate the need for private charity, such as the venerable Social Security program. St Louis has many ruined husks of structures. At the same time, it was willing to help raise one billion dollars for a football stadium.

We seem to expect governmental programs to be poorly run. We also seem to ignore when private institutions are poorly run. I have heard almost no complaint about the recent spate of enormous fines being paid by banks for bringing to the entire economy to its knees in 2008.

The public space used to be an emblem of pride. Look at the quality of older governmental structures, be it city halls, county courthouses, or other civic ventures. Astounding public parks were created, be it Rock Springs Park in Alton or the magnificence of Forest Park and its institutions across the river. We are all witnesses to a concerted effort to “privatize” public life, in education for instance.  One of the many things I admire of the WWII generation was its concern with institution building.

I am not sure if cyberspace is a public sphere or a mere aggregation of private expression. Its lack of civility would make me think that it lacks the courtesy the public sphere requires to mediate and lessen divisions. “Enclave culture” talks about diversity, but its structural response is the creation of separate groupings that emphasize being against other grouping more than being for a particular grouping: what one is not more than what we are. The focus on the private seems to have a correlative increase in complaining and blame. As it grows, it has the corresponding, surprising, decline of taking personal responsibility for one’s actions.

We see it in churches constantly. We bring a market orientation to worship: what does it do for me? We speak of mere preferences as principles. Religious denominations lose members, and folks are more willing to shop for churches than they once were. One hears about being spiritual but not religious quite frequently. It is as if the very notion of an organization has been rendered suspect.

We live in tension between two poles. One is cohesion, togetherness, centripetal forces. The other is the individual, fission, centrifugal forces. Some years ago, the sociologist Robert Putnam wrote Bowling Alone. He spoke of the collapse of community in the face of public participation in political and social life declining in area after area, from voting to membership in groups such as Rotary. Part of it is the amount of hours we work and the many demands placed on us. Oscar Wilde said that “the trouble of socialism is that it took up too many evenings.” It may well be time for us to take some evenings to get clarity on the weights of the public and private sphere in this new century.

Points for week of April 16

April 17 Sunday-Ps. 23 is a psalm many have memorized and perhaps more love. What is it about this psalm that speaks to you? What does not speak to you? What could be another way of using the shepherd image? What does dwelling the house of the Lord mean to  you?

Monday-“At the root of humility is the Greek word humus, which means ‘earth’ or ‘earthiness’ – the earth that God made and called good, the earth from which God fashioned us.  Humility is the fundamental recognition that we each draw our life and breath from the same source – the God who made us and calls us beloved.” --- Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Tuesday-Our heads and hearts are full of crazy, often self-defeating, competing voices. We each have parts of ourselves we try to push away.These voices often fight within us for primacy.  Especially loud can be the inner Judge, who thinks she knows everything. There is a deeper and wiser voice, which is the Self, or sometimes called the Inner Witness. It is the calm and compassionate part that can sit in the center of all this chaos and behold it all. This is the voice of the soul. (Paintner, again)

Wednesday-What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action. (Meister Eckhart)

Thursday-"God refuses to be known intellectually. God can only be loved and known in the act of love; God can only be experienced in communion." —Richard Rohr in his meditation.

Friday-I came across a Dorothy Bass paraphrase of something written by Martin Luther, and it is worth pondering. "A whole life is made not of godliness but of becoming godly. A whole life is known not by health, but by getting well; not by being but becoming; not by rest but by exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on our way. The process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. We have not reached the goal, but we are on the right road. At present, everything does not gleam and sparkle. But everything is being made new."

Saturday- A rabbi recently told a group of Christians that if you want to understand Judaism you must understand one word: "question." He said this is because Judaism is built on the premise of questioning everything. The minute one 

apirl 10 Sermon Notes-Acts 9, John 21, Rev. 5:11-14

April 10 Acts 9, Rev. 5, John 21

So many biblical passages deal with insight and revelation. It is striking in our readings today.  acts 9  Saul is introduced as holding the coats of the mob that murdered the deacon Stephen. He is persecuting members of the infant church. Now the last person on earth to become a christian is favored with a vision. A number of people are disappointed in their religious life as they do not have a Damascus road blinding vision and word form the Lord.Ananias has a crucial vision  as well. He wants no part of a persecutor of the church. This reconciling act is the basis of a new community.forgiveness means helping and working together. transformation of the enemy is here.Ananias heals the enemy. Now the scales fall from Saul’s eyes, after receiving the healing power of forgiveness and entrance into the new community. Saul has not eaten for three days nor had anything to drink, so he needs physical strength as well to do spiritual work.3 days without water is about our limit, but we just read of three days in the tomb and recall three days in the belly of the beast for Jonah. .He has a remarkable religious experience of a question from the ascended Jesus. That changes everything. He is called into a community. The community has to heal , forgive, send out their erstwhile persecutor.(Tutu’s daughter  was here on racial forgiveness).All Jesus does here is voice-I cannot tell if the light is emanating from heaven itself, as in a commission as in Dan. 10 or Ezek. 1)  or is part of the vision of Jesus, but it is an auditory encounter as well as   a blinding light.Blinded by the light-Can you imagine the difficulty that Ananias would have in healing Paul’s ailment?,Saul has a blinding vision, so did John in his worship visions on Patmos

One of my religious epiphanies was reading Rev. 5:11,in some ways this little passage is the core of the book of Revelation-I repeat not the charts of the newer American interpretations but this passage on the Little lamb and the huge heavenly chorus axios worthy was a political hail to the chief the attribute of the lamb at the center is mighty that expose that unveiling that looking behind the curtain like Toto shows us tension or a level of discourse the great might of God is best seen in the slain little lamb. To what degree is the vision of Jesus by Saul part of this vision? Not the lion as in Lewis’s Aslan, but a slain little lamb.That is how Jesus is imagined in the precincts of the divine.

John 21-The  closing of the movie risen draws a lot of its inspiration from our passage this morning. I’ve always like the story of the beach barbecue as it shows continued concern for basic human need-When I am working, I don;t like interruptions, and I especially don't like unsolicited advice when things are not going well, or even being watched when I am trying to cook something-Come and have some breakfast- is it a relay of the loaves and fishes? As opposed to Damascus road the beach scene is not as dramatic-working to get fish and having some lunch lacks some of the drama.resurrection life does not discount the importance of basic survival. It also points to  spiritual survival. God is present in life both mundane and in the rare spectacular ecstasy. 3 denials-3 times- do you love me-not forgotten but forgiven. do you love me? Ask yourself that question at the start of the day, as I don’t know if I could bear asking that to myself at the close of the day.

week of April 10 Pointers

Sunday-Ps. 30 is powerful as a vision of the future for the grieving. It has the utter joy of someone cured of a mortal ailment as well. When have you felt god’s anger or favor (v. 50? When have you been clothed with joy (v. 11) and when have you been unable to be silent in praise (v. 12)?

Monday-We continue to grow and learn and allow the living God to test the boundaries, to call into question even our "non-negotiables," and to act as (to borrow a phrase from C.S. Lewis) "the eternal Iconoclast" who dismantles every idol we craft, even when that idol is made of our own most precious creeds. Maturity in being human comes as much from discarding the extraneous as it does from acquiring new insights. Ultimately, that which ennobles us is our humility in the face of the holy. As the Tao Te Ching says: "When [humans] lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster." (Chapter 72)**Michael Jinkins

Tuesday- This hymn, Awake My Heart even has us laughing at sin (vs. 4) because we are "clinging forever to Christ, [our] true Savior." We are invited to laugh at what once held us bound, knowing that in Christ we are now set free. There is no longer any place for fear, because as alpha and omega "My Lord will leave me never" (vs. 5). Christ went through death into new life and so "whate'er he passes through. . . I follow him through all." Christ is the first fruit of the new creation to which we also belong through our baptisms. God Pause

Wednesday -We can grow impatient when life doesn’t offer us instant insights or gratification. We call on the wisdom of these monks to accompany us, to teach us what it means to honor the beauty of waiting and attending and witnessing what it is that wants to emerge, rather than what our rational minds want to make happen. The soul always offers us more richness than we can imagine, if we only make space and listen. That is the gift of this threshold time, learning to rest into darkness and mystery, and deeper ways to listen. Abbey of the Arts

Thursday-Resurrection means the worse thing is never the last thing. ~ Rev. Frederick Buechner,

Friday-Doubt arises within the context the faith. It is a wistful longing to be sure of the things in which we trust. But it is not and need not be a problem. Alister McGrath

Saturday-"Know yourself" is good advice. But to know ourselves doesn't mean to analyse ourselves. Sometimes we want to know ourselves as if we were machines that could be taken apart and put back together at will. At certain critical times in our lives it might be helpful to explore in some detail the events that led us to our crises, but we make a mistake when we think that we can ever completely understand ourselves and explain the full meaning of our lives to others. Upper room

Column on Revelation:Use and Misuse

Many older churches use a three year cycle of readings, the lectionary. For about a month, we will be reading selections from the book of Revelation. (Notice it is singular, as it is the translation of apocalypse in Greek, meaning revelation in the sense of uncovering).

Few books in the Bible have been so misunderstood and misused. I remember when I just started out in ministry, a woman screamed at me after a funeral as she did not like the book of Revelation. (I suppose now that it was a symbol, as I rather doubt she actually even perused it). The vision was transmitted to seven actual churches on a Roman road in present-day Turkey. Wondering if they are indeed with God, they are shown that they are part of a movement that moves inexorably to God’s vision for a better world. That is to be an encouragement as they face opposition, even persecution in their lives.

In America, a relatively new interpretive model has taken hold of the popular imagination.John Nelson Darby in the 1830s worked out a systematic interpretation of apocalyptic material in the bible and wrote on the book of Revelation itself. His method may have fallen by the wayside, but its viewpoints were included in the notes of the very popular Scofield Bible of the 20th Century. The Left Behind series is deeply indebted to this treatment. TV preachers of the imminent end, such as Hagee or van Impe are the descendants of this viewpoint.

Yet, a supposedly secular culture has embraced elements of Darbyite thought and transformed it into their own purposes. Look at the profusion of interest in end time scenarios in popular culture. Look at the media portrayals of zombies as the format that has replaced, say, the Western.

Befuddled by this viewpoint, and frankly embarrassed by it, the older established churches ceded the field and proceeded on their own trajectory.It is a cleavage point in american relgion. One side sees a world sliding straight to Hell, and another sees with Dr. King that the arc of the universe is long, but it points toward justice. One view is essentially passive, and out of a sense of powerlessness throws the course of life upstairs, while the other viewpoint sees us as intimately involved in the work of God to make the world answer the lord’s Prayer, on earth as it is in heaven.

So America is dotted with churches who are convinced that the end times can be predicted by reading various passages as a sort of code. They make the assumption that the predictions are directed at America, even though it was an unknown land to the writers of the bible. It does not seem to matter that prediction after prediction is wrong.In this view of history, we take note of every problem as a downhill slide to oblivion. If “things get worse and worse” then God’s hand will be forced to usher in a new age.

For instance, this Sunday we will be introduced to the figure of Jesus imagined as a slan little lamb. This crucial image often gets s little attention. C.S. Lewis made his central Christ image a lion, but Revelation chooses a sacrificial image.Eugene Peterson in his Reversed Thunder sees it as a vital image in this compendium of images drawn from the Old Testament.One would expect the powerul preening Lion of Judah, a symbol of power and strength. No, there in the throne room vision is a little slain lamb. God’s power is not demonstrated here as an exalted militarized fantasy of control.Revelation’s core image tell us that god work through the power of sacrifice, of a love that will lay down its life for friends.

Week of April 3 devotional points

Sunday-Ps.118 has been used since Holy Week as it touches on many of its themes. It is framed by the phrase:the Lord is good-God's steadfast love (hesed) endures forever. How do you read that in light of the events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter? How does their meaning get affected by placing that standard over them?

Monday-The saving work of Christ is hidden in plain sight. Christ is in the midst of us. Praise, joy, and song are the right response. Blessing peace and glory are present and surely coming. The immediate future is not bright: weeping, betrayal, denial, are all on the horizon, and yet, the ultimate future is sure, forgiveness, reconciliation,and the reign of God relentlessly on the way...Therefore, we are called to point out the hidden pictures that reveal Christ-God for us and wish us in the very thick of it all. (Presbyterian Outlook)

Tuesday The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.Robertson Davies,

Wednesday-"Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future." - Louis B. Smedes

Thursday-In the Celtic world that gateway is present everywhere. In every place is the immediacy of heaven. In every moment we can glimpse the Light that was in the beginning and from which all things have come. As Mary Oliver says, "The threshold is always near." We can step over this threshold and back again in the fleeting span of a second. In a single step we can find ourselves momentarily in that other world, the world of eternal Light, which is woven inseparably through this world - the world of matter that is forever unfolding like a river in flow.

Friday-In the Old Testament writings the phrase "weary land" often refers to a desert area void of water. This hymn draws on the words of Isaiah 32:1-2, which reads, "See, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice. Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land." Jesus is this kind of king. He satisfies our most desperate thirst and protects us from the hottest sun. When we sing "Jesus is a Rock in a Weary Land," we remember that he knows our plight and has responded to us in our need. We are not alone and exposed in the wilderness. We have his presence with us always.

Saturday-Poet Lynn Ungar has a wonderful poem titled "Camas Lilies" in which she writes: "And you -- what of your rushed and / useful life? Imagine setting it all down -- / papers, plans, appointments, everything, / leaving only a note: "Gone to the fields / to be lovely. Be back when I'm through / with blooming." Spring is a time to set aside some of the plans and open ourselves to our own blooming.

Forgivenss and Easter Life-Rev. 1, Acts 5, John 20:19-31

April 3 Rev. 1, John 20:19-31, Acts 5

I have been haunted by the words of a 75 year old man who has been a faithful church goer, but he does not have a clue about forgiveness. I spoke on forgiveness at the community Lenten service this year here, and now the readings affords another opportunity.We offered a workshop on forgiveness during Lent. All the dreams of wealth, power and celebrity fall by the wayside in the face of this heavenly vision. Power cannot dictate their experience of God, their revelation of the meaning and telos of Jesus beyond the grave. Forgiveness of sins before a tribunal is comic.The kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of forgiveness.

”Rev. 1:4,John had a worship vision on a tiny Greek  island just west of modern Turkey.Only about 3000 people live there on the small island now. (Sometimes I have a novel percolating about discovering a NT manuscript and its locale would be the monastery library at Patmos.)  In this little island he has an expansive vision of the enormous import of Jesus. Mystics move well past the circumstance of their position and find linkage to the beyond, to catch a trace of the divine as their thoughts seek to merge with a world far beyond ours. Jesus sounds divine in this vision with  its flurry of titles.The same Jesus shows his wounds, not yet scars to the disciples. they abandoned him; he doesn't leave them. He is the door, so no locked door may deter him. Yet in the vision, Jesus has a functional title of freeing us from sins. The church is the focal point where the divine and the human come together.

Forgiveness as element of spirit life--We have worked with this small section before, even though the disbelieving Thomas story usually gets the attention. The power of Christ in the disciples first off is the power of forgiveness.  Why forgiveness offers life to relationships. It kills the deadening power of recrimination in a relationship. forgiveness allows us not to equate the person with hurtful behavior and see them in a broader way. So many people have a feeling thermometer but it only goes down.odd things do not raise its score. Backpacking resentments allow this in our relationships.Forgiveness breathes life into relationship.Skinner- the  resurrected Christ tells his followers (all his followers) that, through the Spirit, they can set people free ("set free" or "release" is a better translation than "forgive" in 20:23) from that state of affairs. The first gift of the resurrection community is forgiveness. Why it provides new life to relationships.Forgiveness gives new life to a future and releases the hold of the past on us.

Some of us excuse not forgiving as it is difficult or not correlative with forgetting. doubt the power of forgiveness a weighty a matter as Thomas wanting some tangible proof doubting thomas-was the doubt/disbelief even wrong? Of course we keep seeking tangible proofs,  Blessed are those who do not see and believe (like the ending Hab?? where even though they do not see they have confidence that they will).I continue to be  impressed with the identification of wounds or scars for the disciples. It shows some continuity with the life of Jesus and its horrible end. Plastic surgery does not seem part of his resurrection body as yet.Are those wounds still healing? (see Volf)Forgiveness provides a way into the locked door of a relationship slammed shut by hurt. In itme, maybe the hurts are forgotten or locked safely away.It is the way of closing the wounds we cause and carry.Easter people learn ot forgive.

eye in the sky and Ethics Piece

We seem concerned about ethical behavior in children. We seem less so about ethical understanding and behavior in adults. So, adults do not seem to advance beyond childish ethical consideration, unless it is to justify an ethical lapse. We seem to have an aversion to thinking through ethics, so maybe movies offer a safe way to explore ethical decisions and break through our barriers.

Violence continues to bedevil us. At present, the left decries its use, unless it is in the hands of the underclasses. The right seems to be enamored of it, especially when it is directed against “the other.”

I just saw the new film, Eye in the Sky, with a sterling cast of sterling performances and expert editing to help build suspense. It deals with a single incident of drone warfare against a terrorist gathering. As circumstances change, so do the ethical considerations of the varied decision-makers in the various, far flung places that will make the decision to kill. Our ethical decisions about violence tend to concern direct hand to hand death. When death itself is placed at a remove, whether bombing or the drone strike, how do we approach it? What is it about the human heart and mind that we have a difficult time taking an individual life but we grow numb at the thought of taking multiple lives. Why do the numbers turn into abstraction?

The weight of the movie rests on different characters in the military. First, they have absorbed the religious doctrine of “just war” more fully than the political actors. They easily speak of discrimination and proportionality, two of its major components. They are exasperated by the refusal of their political superiors to act when their critical value, “military necessity” is in play. They have a clear sense of being willing to sacrifice a few lives to prevent a possible catastrophe.

The small group actually piloting the drone certainly faces direct ethical responsibility. Instead of approaching their task like a video game, the eye in the sky gives a personal dimension to their task. Indeed, they seem to be traumatized by the results of their work. No, their work does not involve the marital virtue of physical courage, but they operate under enormous stress. One wonders if they will be able to learn to live with their tasks or if successive events will harden them or increase their burdens.

Perhaps the most chilling ethical person is a political advisor. At one level, she comes off as a near pacifist in her unwillingness to use a drone strike. Yet, her motivation is revealed when she would prefer a terrorist group claiming credit for a massacre rather than trying to explain a one civilian death in the strike.

It also shows the small ethical lapses that start to compound within a person. To cover complicity in a possible investigation, one central figure deliberately places the chances of civilian casualties, “collateral damage” at a lower level to achieve support for the strike. Her underling knows that fudging the figures is dishonest, but he dutifully follows orders. To what degree do the small ethical compromises we make affect the more critical decisions we make?

Through it all, the random quality of life events shine through. Why does the window for