Back in Indiana, a local pastor said her rarely spoke on Palm Sunday, but he much preferred to speak about the events of Holy Week. “How much can you say about a parade,” he asked. Today, I thought I would give our readers a bit of a glimpse into sermon preparation, where much material goes into background, or church education class, but may not ever see the light of day on Sunday morning in the sanctuary.
I am interested in how quickly things changed for Jesus. How could the Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday of Hosanna (save us, or more likely a shout of acclaim) turn into cries of ‘crucify him” so quickly? The gospels suggest crowds of some size, and that alone would gain Roman attention, especially because of the crush of people visiting the temple for the Passover sacrifices. (For serious looks at the historical context of the last week of the life of Jesus see the 2 volume Death of the Messiah by Raymond Brown, Crossan’s biography of Jesus and his little book, Who Killed Jesus, Meier biographies of Jesus, N.T. Wright’s huge collection of work on the topic, among many others.)
Paula Frederickson would argue that Jesus had his fate sealed by the Triumphal Procession itself. The critical issue would be if Jesus were proclaimed as King of the Jews during that demonstration. The gospels cite Zechariah 9, and he speaks of a king. Christians point out that Jesus was redefining messianic expectation here and arriving as a man of peace and gentleness. However, Judea was under Roman occupation, with Ronan soldiers garrisoned nearby, especially for the Passover festival. Such a phrase would arouse suspicion in Pilate’s mind immediately, given the turbulence of politics in that time and the sometimes restive political nature of the separate area of Galilee, the home of Jesus. Galilee was a hotbed of religious reformers, and that often spilled over into political messages. Passover often spelt trouble as it recalled the exodus from the oppression of Egypt, so it was not a large step to equate Rome with Egyptian oppression.
We know little about Pilate, but what evidence we have is not noble. Pilate’s disposition was inflexible, stubborn, and corrupt. In other words, he was a typical colonial administrator. . He was removed from office not that long after the death of Jesus because he ordered the massacre of pilgrims in Samaria, the area between Galilee and Judea in the south. A few times, he incited protests by carrying Roman standards, with the image of the emperor, into the Temple precincts.
The gospels also put the prediction of the Temple’s destruction and the symbolic overturning of the tables in a small corner of the Temple may have led toward Jesus being considered trouble for Roman order. Herod started an enormous reconstruction and expansion of the Temple complex that lasted almost a century, and almost as soon as it was finished, Rome destroyed it. the Dead Sea Scrolls have material that speak of cleansing the temple as a prelude to two messianic figures, a priestly one to reform religion and a political one to offer political freedom.
Our gospel accounts are religious documents, so they have heavy theological import and symbolism throughout. Pilate could not have cared less about Jewish theology. Quite simply, if he heard that a potential troublemaker had alerted the attention of leading people in Jerusalem, he would act decisively to nip a potential movement with political overtones in the bud. He had Jesus executed. Crucifixion was a political statement of rome as a warning to others. To avoid this horror, keep quiet and passive. the mere threat of it was enough to turn demonstrator from dreams of a new way in the world to cries of crucifixion in the blink of an eye.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Sermon Notes 3/25 Jn. 12:2-33, Heb. 5:5-10
Can we speak of divine feelings? I tend to think we must, as we all confess that God is love. Our readings touch on it in one way or another. Our little piece on a new covenant, a new partnership in Jeremiah emerges from a broken divine heart. God speaks of the people of Israel with a metaphor of marriage. He goes on to say that the people broke their threw away their wedding ring, if you will. they broke the vow of loyalty and fidelity. God remains faithful in spite of being kicked to the side. god really offers a new start, to remember no more, to call to mind the hurt no more.
Our passage from Hebrews does not seem to cite a particular piece of Scripture. Here in Lent, my thoughts immediately move to the cross or Gethsemane, but maybe not.We are faced with the tears of a priest. I am one of those who like to picture Jesus as preternaturally calm. We get a different picture here, do we not?
It is possible that we are getting a glimpse at the prayer life of Jesus. In some ancient material, these loud cries and tears describe the prayers of pious people, sincere people. They also, though, are linked to people in trouble. Again, if we take a stance that Jesus serenely floated through life, this again pulls us up short. They could also be prayers of intercession as well as supplication. Jesus’s compassion was and is so deep that prayers for others had perhaps more emotion than prayers for his own condition. This letter is convinced that Jesus is shaped by suffering to help bear the suffering of the world on his shoulders. This high priest is empathetic, more than sympathetic with us. We are not clients of salvation, we are more than patients for divine healing, we are family. Jesus can go beyond saying there by the grace of God go I, but there by the grace of God I am (see Long commentary on Hebrews:42). Parker Palmer, writing on the season, says that Midwestern winters (well usually) are to be feared, but the way we can survive them is to learn to face them, get outside to experience the winter cold and winter wonders. So in prayer, Jesus carries not only our needs, but Jesus carries us into the abode of
God. (Cite What a Friend verses). Put differently, in the Incarnation, God’s own is intimately with us, and that includes our suffering. Jesus prayed to get through his own suffering, to find strength and help; Jesus prayed for us to get strength and help through our suffering. Jesus continues to do so right now. Suffering is not some secret signal of God’s disfavor, some retribution for a long forgotten sin. No, it is part of human experience, period.
Of all places, we get further evidence for this in the gospel of John. By and large, Jesus glides over life in this gospel; I always think of the otherworldly sense of a Zen master. Here, Jesus says, now my soul is troubled. He asks aloud, prays aloud, should I say, “Father, save me from this hour?”Yes, Jesus can face death heroically , especially in this gospel. it reminds me of the Sidney Carton line, it is a far, far better thing that I do then I have ever done.” Recall that Carton takes the place of someone on the guillotine.He will be lifted up, on the ross, on Easter, at the ascension and will draw all people to himself. Notice, not coerce, not force, but draw like a magnet. Power may be a great aphrodisiac, but the power is love is compelling enough to draw us toward it. It can even take the cross and attract us to it. One day, we too may pray with loud cries and tears, for others.
Our passage from Hebrews does not seem to cite a particular piece of Scripture. Here in Lent, my thoughts immediately move to the cross or Gethsemane, but maybe not.We are faced with the tears of a priest. I am one of those who like to picture Jesus as preternaturally calm. We get a different picture here, do we not?
It is possible that we are getting a glimpse at the prayer life of Jesus. In some ancient material, these loud cries and tears describe the prayers of pious people, sincere people. They also, though, are linked to people in trouble. Again, if we take a stance that Jesus serenely floated through life, this again pulls us up short. They could also be prayers of intercession as well as supplication. Jesus’s compassion was and is so deep that prayers for others had perhaps more emotion than prayers for his own condition. This letter is convinced that Jesus is shaped by suffering to help bear the suffering of the world on his shoulders. This high priest is empathetic, more than sympathetic with us. We are not clients of salvation, we are more than patients for divine healing, we are family. Jesus can go beyond saying there by the grace of God go I, but there by the grace of God I am (see Long commentary on Hebrews:42). Parker Palmer, writing on the season, says that Midwestern winters (well usually) are to be feared, but the way we can survive them is to learn to face them, get outside to experience the winter cold and winter wonders. So in prayer, Jesus carries not only our needs, but Jesus carries us into the abode of
God. (Cite What a Friend verses). Put differently, in the Incarnation, God’s own is intimately with us, and that includes our suffering. Jesus prayed to get through his own suffering, to find strength and help; Jesus prayed for us to get strength and help through our suffering. Jesus continues to do so right now. Suffering is not some secret signal of God’s disfavor, some retribution for a long forgotten sin. No, it is part of human experience, period.
Of all places, we get further evidence for this in the gospel of John. By and large, Jesus glides over life in this gospel; I always think of the otherworldly sense of a Zen master. Here, Jesus says, now my soul is troubled. He asks aloud, prays aloud, should I say, “Father, save me from this hour?”Yes, Jesus can face death heroically , especially in this gospel. it reminds me of the Sidney Carton line, it is a far, far better thing that I do then I have ever done.” Recall that Carton takes the place of someone on the guillotine.He will be lifted up, on the ross, on Easter, at the ascension and will draw all people to himself. Notice, not coerce, not force, but draw like a magnet. Power may be a great aphrodisiac, but the power is love is compelling enough to draw us toward it. It can even take the cross and attract us to it. One day, we too may pray with loud cries and tears, for others.
April 1-Is. 50:4-9
1) I haven;t decided how I am going to handle of the Holy Week readings. It is possible that I will move into readings for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The number of readings is so huge for Holy Saturday, that if I approach them, I will be selective and perhaps pick less familiar ones.
2) Most of you know that this is the third Servant Song. It is always wise to look at the Dame Zion material in these sections as well. Here it is possible that the Servant is linked to the prophet.
3)How do we sustain the weary with a word? How do we fail to do so?
4) How and why would one be rebellious if God spoke and opened their ear?
5) Here we cannot help but reflect on the scourging of Jesus . I leave it to the reader to decide to move into the fetish territory of Passion of the Christ.
6) Is it possible that v. 6 is a template for the description of Jesus and torture? I would like folks to explain to me how we can support torture when our Savior was tortured?
7)Knowledge that Go helps allows the tortured one to "set the face like flint." When is setting one's face like flint not a good idea/ I am almost done with Tim Madigan's I'm Proud of You, his memoir of Fred Rogers. He gives ample evidence of its problems.
8) Vv 8-9 are definitely in the courtroom dispute arena. We move beyond help to vindication. I know people who are sustained in their justice work with this confidence of vindication. I am convinced that one day we will have health care for all Americans as a right, not a privilege as Sen. Kennedy used to say.
90 what does this passage say to us on the use and abuse of power?
2) Most of you know that this is the third Servant Song. It is always wise to look at the Dame Zion material in these sections as well. Here it is possible that the Servant is linked to the prophet.
3)How do we sustain the weary with a word? How do we fail to do so?
4) How and why would one be rebellious if God spoke and opened their ear?
5) Here we cannot help but reflect on the scourging of Jesus . I leave it to the reader to decide to move into the fetish territory of Passion of the Christ.
6) Is it possible that v. 6 is a template for the description of Jesus and torture? I would like folks to explain to me how we can support torture when our Savior was tortured?
7)Knowledge that Go helps allows the tortured one to "set the face like flint." When is setting one's face like flint not a good idea/ I am almost done with Tim Madigan's I'm Proud of You, his memoir of Fred Rogers. He gives ample evidence of its problems.
8) Vv 8-9 are definitely in the courtroom dispute arena. We move beyond help to vindication. I know people who are sustained in their justice work with this confidence of vindication. I am convinced that one day we will have health care for all Americans as a right, not a privilege as Sen. Kennedy used to say.
90 what does this passage say to us on the use and abuse of power?
Week of March 25 devotions
Sunday March 25- Ps. 51 is one of the great penitential psalms. Its heading recalls David coming to grips with his moral failings with Bathsheba. Not only doe she want to be cleansed, he asks for a “new heart to be created for him. When faced with our sin, our best offering is ‘a broken and contrite heart.” this from one who had moved the tabernacle and wanted to build a temple for the lord.
Monday-the issue of control springs up in all sorts of ways. Someone won’t say a preference out loud or says they don’t care and when someone does make a decision they hear they are controlling. Others cannot abide if anyone has an opinion on anything if \it would dare to not coincide with theirs. In part, the impulse to being controlling comes from seeing life as chaotic. At other times, it may be the incapacity to try to adjust to other points of view.
Tuesday-In Gal. 5:21-22 Paul shows the dichotomy between life in the Spirit and life in the flesh, anti-spirit if you will. Look at how the vice list shows how we do not treat people with respect or cannot live together in harmony. Look at how the virtue list shows the result of treating people with respect and living in harmony with others. Life in the spirit is the capacity of living together.
Wednesday –Robert Hayden’s poem, Those Winter Sundays, recalls a father who woke up firs to get the chill from a house and shined the shoes of his son for church. “No one ever thanked him.” He ends: “what did I know, what did I know/ of love’s austere and lonely offices/?” What are some thankless tasks that were or are performed for you/ what are some thankless tasks you perform, all for love, all for love?
Thursday James Martin has a book on humor, Between Heaven and Mirth. he tells a story of a novice in a silent monastery where he can say 2 words every five years. the first time, he tells the abbot after five years, food cold. We’ll handle that, he is told. After ten years, he says, bed hard. We’ll handle it says the abbot. After 15 years, the monk say, I’m leaving. The abbot replies. No surprise. You’ve done nothing but complain since you got here. What are your favorite jokes? Favorite comedians?
Friday- I skimmed through a book on the reconstruction and extensions of the U. S. Capitol during the 1850s and early 1860s. The project was filled with missteps and tension, often due to the clash of ego, roles, and expectations. It is a great example that our ages not the only one where time and money are spilled out due to the inertia of the refusal to work together. Indeed, it could be a symbol for the tower of Babel. We find it os hard to speak the truth in love.
Saturday-I am paging through a new book on Copernicus by the talented writer Dana Sobel who has written on working out longitude for navigation and a wonderful piece on Galileo’s daughter, a nun. While he was revolutionizing astronomy and certain readings of the Bible, for that matter, he was involved in the day to day work as a church bureaucrat. While he was displacing the earth as the center of everything, he was up to his neck in making property assessments and working on currency reform. nPeople have depths we may merely guess at.
Monday-the issue of control springs up in all sorts of ways. Someone won’t say a preference out loud or says they don’t care and when someone does make a decision they hear they are controlling. Others cannot abide if anyone has an opinion on anything if \it would dare to not coincide with theirs. In part, the impulse to being controlling comes from seeing life as chaotic. At other times, it may be the incapacity to try to adjust to other points of view.
Tuesday-In Gal. 5:21-22 Paul shows the dichotomy between life in the Spirit and life in the flesh, anti-spirit if you will. Look at how the vice list shows how we do not treat people with respect or cannot live together in harmony. Look at how the virtue list shows the result of treating people with respect and living in harmony with others. Life in the spirit is the capacity of living together.
Wednesday –Robert Hayden’s poem, Those Winter Sundays, recalls a father who woke up firs to get the chill from a house and shined the shoes of his son for church. “No one ever thanked him.” He ends: “what did I know, what did I know/ of love’s austere and lonely offices/?” What are some thankless tasks that were or are performed for you/ what are some thankless tasks you perform, all for love, all for love?
Thursday James Martin has a book on humor, Between Heaven and Mirth. he tells a story of a novice in a silent monastery where he can say 2 words every five years. the first time, he tells the abbot after five years, food cold. We’ll handle that, he is told. After ten years, he says, bed hard. We’ll handle it says the abbot. After 15 years, the monk say, I’m leaving. The abbot replies. No surprise. You’ve done nothing but complain since you got here. What are your favorite jokes? Favorite comedians?
Friday- I skimmed through a book on the reconstruction and extensions of the U. S. Capitol during the 1850s and early 1860s. The project was filled with missteps and tension, often due to the clash of ego, roles, and expectations. It is a great example that our ages not the only one where time and money are spilled out due to the inertia of the refusal to work together. Indeed, it could be a symbol for the tower of Babel. We find it os hard to speak the truth in love.
Saturday-I am paging through a new book on Copernicus by the talented writer Dana Sobel who has written on working out longitude for navigation and a wonderful piece on Galileo’s daughter, a nun. While he was revolutionizing astronomy and certain readings of the Bible, for that matter, he was involved in the day to day work as a church bureaucrat. While he was displacing the earth as the center of everything, he was up to his neck in making property assessments and working on currency reform. nPeople have depths we may merely guess at.
Friday, March 23, 2012
March 24 column on Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott is speaking tomorrow, March 24th, at the St Louis County Library. She writes both fiction and non-fiction, but I know her through her printed essays and when she wrote a column for salon, the on-line magazine.
She has struggled in her life, especially with alcohol. She found some solace and stability in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian church in the California bay area. She raised a child, mostly on her own, and faced the tough decisions about being sandwiched between a child and a mother slipping into dementia.
She has a knack for the aphorism. “If God hates the same people you do, you can be fairly certain you have created God in your own image.”
she came to the faith as an adult, but she speaks for many of us in her constant battles to live within it. She wants her life to be a a smooth flight path toward heaven. Instead, she often finds it a slow slog, of small steps, and relapse, and then finding her footing again. As she puts it, “slog, scootch, scotch, rest.” One of the tricks in life, she learns is ‘falling better.” She learned to ski but falls a lot, and she enjoys the run in between the “spills and humiliations, just like life.” In the story she recounts taking her friend Sue, who was dying of cancer, for one last ski trip, the week after Easter. They replayed the Hoy Week services a week late, in the hotel room. Her friend was in a Good Friday time, but she lived as if it were Easter. She taught Anne that the trick to skiing was learning to fall better. The fear of falling impeded her love of the skis. For many of us, we will not reach the summits of our desires. On the way there, perhaps the best we can do is to learn to “fall better.”
She is that most special and gifted of writers on the spiritual life, as she is funny, irreverent and funny, moving and funny. She imagines the disciples on the day after the crucifixion all playing Monday morning quarterback, drunk, and deciding that is was all over for them too. She tells of her struggle finding a dress as an adult flower girl in a wedding where she had visions of looking like some forest princess but being told that she could fit only into an extra large mother of the bride outfit, at 5-7 and 140 pounds.
One of her special gifts is finding some grace in small moments in the hardships of life. She speaks of going past the choir at practice and enjoys their muffled piety. Then, someone has to step out for a moment and “a beam of singing falls directly on me.” She troops off to do a service in a nursing home. Her teenaged son has been impossible all weekend, but he dutifully helps his partner follow the songs and she recites the Lord’s Prayer with him. Her lady falls asleep during the service, and then se wakes and yells that she likes a house, and points to the air. Her teenaged son comes to help her and says let her sleep, she like d the house in her dreams.
Lately, a number of folks have complained that they miss hearing ministers preach about hell and damnation as much as they recall from their youth. they are convinced that we have to demonstrate, prove, our worth before God and each other. Anne Lamott knows better. she knows of grace, full and free. “Grace means you’re in a different universe from where you had been stuck, when you had absolutely no way to get there on your own.”
She has struggled in her life, especially with alcohol. She found some solace and stability in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian church in the California bay area. She raised a child, mostly on her own, and faced the tough decisions about being sandwiched between a child and a mother slipping into dementia.
She has a knack for the aphorism. “If God hates the same people you do, you can be fairly certain you have created God in your own image.”
she came to the faith as an adult, but she speaks for many of us in her constant battles to live within it. She wants her life to be a a smooth flight path toward heaven. Instead, she often finds it a slow slog, of small steps, and relapse, and then finding her footing again. As she puts it, “slog, scootch, scotch, rest.” One of the tricks in life, she learns is ‘falling better.” She learned to ski but falls a lot, and she enjoys the run in between the “spills and humiliations, just like life.” In the story she recounts taking her friend Sue, who was dying of cancer, for one last ski trip, the week after Easter. They replayed the Hoy Week services a week late, in the hotel room. Her friend was in a Good Friday time, but she lived as if it were Easter. She taught Anne that the trick to skiing was learning to fall better. The fear of falling impeded her love of the skis. For many of us, we will not reach the summits of our desires. On the way there, perhaps the best we can do is to learn to “fall better.”
She is that most special and gifted of writers on the spiritual life, as she is funny, irreverent and funny, moving and funny. She imagines the disciples on the day after the crucifixion all playing Monday morning quarterback, drunk, and deciding that is was all over for them too. She tells of her struggle finding a dress as an adult flower girl in a wedding where she had visions of looking like some forest princess but being told that she could fit only into an extra large mother of the bride outfit, at 5-7 and 140 pounds.
One of her special gifts is finding some grace in small moments in the hardships of life. She speaks of going past the choir at practice and enjoys their muffled piety. Then, someone has to step out for a moment and “a beam of singing falls directly on me.” She troops off to do a service in a nursing home. Her teenaged son has been impossible all weekend, but he dutifully helps his partner follow the songs and she recites the Lord’s Prayer with him. Her lady falls asleep during the service, and then se wakes and yells that she likes a house, and points to the air. Her teenaged son comes to help her and says let her sleep, she like d the house in her dreams.
Lately, a number of folks have complained that they miss hearing ministers preach about hell and damnation as much as they recall from their youth. they are convinced that we have to demonstrate, prove, our worth before God and each other. Anne Lamott knows better. she knows of grace, full and free. “Grace means you’re in a different universe from where you had been stuck, when you had absolutely no way to get there on your own.”
Saturday, March 17, 2012
OT Notes Jer. 31:31-4
1) This is a short little war horse passage, isn’t it?
2) Without falling prey to supercessionism, interpret the new covenant. Without being anti-Judaic, interpret the new covenant.
3) What images come to mind when we read that god took the people by the hand? How could you work that for a congregation and/or an individual?
4) Work with the image of god as a husband to a people. Clearly we get a hint of why adultery was used to amplify the meaning of idolatry to God. Is God saying the people acted a divorce? What makes you uncomfortable with this marital image? What opens up for you with it?
5) What would it mean to have the law/teaching written on the hearts?
6) Notice that God is not accepting a divorce but is seeking reconciliation:they shall be my people. (Note that Hosea is told to call a child “not my people” lo ammi.’)
7) What would spiritual and social life look like if we knew God so well we would have no need of teaching or proclamation? In sports, we sometimes say that certain qualities or attributes can;t be taught.
8) Remember their sin no more is a powerful thing for the the Eternal One, the Omniscient One to say. remember in Hebrew has a sense of bringing the past into present awareness, so I assume that the past is being consigned to the past. Notice how often we say we may be told to forgive, but we can;t forget.
2) Without falling prey to supercessionism, interpret the new covenant. Without being anti-Judaic, interpret the new covenant.
3) What images come to mind when we read that god took the people by the hand? How could you work that for a congregation and/or an individual?
4) Work with the image of god as a husband to a people. Clearly we get a hint of why adultery was used to amplify the meaning of idolatry to God. Is God saying the people acted a divorce? What makes you uncomfortable with this marital image? What opens up for you with it?
5) What would it mean to have the law/teaching written on the hearts?
6) Notice that God is not accepting a divorce but is seeking reconciliation:they shall be my people. (Note that Hosea is told to call a child “not my people” lo ammi.’)
7) What would spiritual and social life look like if we knew God so well we would have no need of teaching or proclamation? In sports, we sometimes say that certain qualities or attributes can;t be taught.
8) Remember their sin no more is a powerful thing for the the Eternal One, the Omniscient One to say. remember in Hebrew has a sense of bringing the past into present awareness, so I assume that the past is being consigned to the past. Notice how often we say we may be told to forgive, but we can;t forget.
devotions Week Of March 18
March 18-Ps. 107 is today’s reading. It starts the last of the five parts of the Psalter. I suspect it is to reflect the five books of the Torah, the first five books of our Bibles. I note vv.298-30, as it notes the storms we face and like Jesus on the sea, they are quieted. “They were glad they had quiet and were brought to the desired safe heaven.” Have you been so quieted/? Do you desire to be so quieted? What would your safe harbor look like? do you have an internal safe haven to which you may repair?
Monday-Buds are on the trees as I write and some daffodils and crocuses have emerged as well. I ran into Janet Riley, and she said the dogwood trees are gorgeous down south. I love that pastels match the approaching Easter season. Recently Biblical scholar and stated clerk Carol Griffith spoke of God as an artist. This is surely one of the times of the year when that image is at its peak. Today, I am taken with the thought that god does some of the best artistic work with living material.
Tuesday-Stellar spring begins with the equinox. This has been a warm march already. I’ve gotten some salad greens planted and am trying peas for the first time. For me lent is a time of planting spiritual seeds that we harvest all through the year. Is there something in your spiritual garden that you need every year? Is there something missing that you would like to have?
Wednesday-Contempt is the opposite of seeing the image of God in someone. It is a hurtful thing to feel contempt, especially from someone you love. It gives the sense that one is unworthy of even time or basic consideration. Sin against others holds them in contempt. I am so grateful that God does not look at us with contempt. Instead we are counted worthy of the life, death, and resurrection, of Jesus.
Thursday-I love March Madness college basketball. I love when a David beats a Goliath. Already some top teams have gone down. I love the emotion of getting wrapped up in a team and how much the players care. That feeling can be an aspiration for us on church feast days. That feeling of togetherness is an aspiration for the fellow feeling of a congregation.
Friday-We live in a ritually impoverished time. The concern for being casual and authentic has robbed us of socially agreed upon way of doing things. We may be at the point where we may need to create our own for ourselves and family for significant moments. Ritual has a way of marking special time. Our children are grown, but they recall what special food we would have at Easter and Christmas.
Saturday-Learning to be gentler on ourselves is a spiritual issue. It seems to me that we have imported the correcting voice of parents, teachers, or bosses and turned them into the voice of conscience. We are all spiritually fragile. I realize that we may be too easy on ourselves at times. We should expect that we will fail at times. Castigating ourselves can become sinful when it attacks our very self-worth and regard. Beating ourselves up gets us where in the end?
Monday-Buds are on the trees as I write and some daffodils and crocuses have emerged as well. I ran into Janet Riley, and she said the dogwood trees are gorgeous down south. I love that pastels match the approaching Easter season. Recently Biblical scholar and stated clerk Carol Griffith spoke of God as an artist. This is surely one of the times of the year when that image is at its peak. Today, I am taken with the thought that god does some of the best artistic work with living material.
Tuesday-Stellar spring begins with the equinox. This has been a warm march already. I’ve gotten some salad greens planted and am trying peas for the first time. For me lent is a time of planting spiritual seeds that we harvest all through the year. Is there something in your spiritual garden that you need every year? Is there something missing that you would like to have?
Wednesday-Contempt is the opposite of seeing the image of God in someone. It is a hurtful thing to feel contempt, especially from someone you love. It gives the sense that one is unworthy of even time or basic consideration. Sin against others holds them in contempt. I am so grateful that God does not look at us with contempt. Instead we are counted worthy of the life, death, and resurrection, of Jesus.
Thursday-I love March Madness college basketball. I love when a David beats a Goliath. Already some top teams have gone down. I love the emotion of getting wrapped up in a team and how much the players care. That feeling can be an aspiration for us on church feast days. That feeling of togetherness is an aspiration for the fellow feeling of a congregation.
Friday-We live in a ritually impoverished time. The concern for being casual and authentic has robbed us of socially agreed upon way of doing things. We may be at the point where we may need to create our own for ourselves and family for significant moments. Ritual has a way of marking special time. Our children are grown, but they recall what special food we would have at Easter and Christmas.
Saturday-Learning to be gentler on ourselves is a spiritual issue. It seems to me that we have imported the correcting voice of parents, teachers, or bosses and turned them into the voice of conscience. We are all spiritually fragile. I realize that we may be too easy on ourselves at times. We should expect that we will fail at times. Castigating ourselves can become sinful when it attacks our very self-worth and regard. Beating ourselves up gets us where in the end?
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