May 30, 2021 Trinity Sunday

 John 3:8  (The Message)

8 You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.

The wind is predictably unpredictable.  It blows where it will.  We do not control it nor can we always predict it.

So is the Spirit of God.  It blows where it will.  We do not control it nor can we always predict it.  For as Paul says, (Rom (9:15b)  “(God) will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and compassion on whom He will have compassion.”

God loves whom God will - and that includes those I would exclude.  It is the world God desires to save, not just us.  As those who believe in Christ we are to live as those who are led by the Spirit of God, which means we will not stand idly by as injustice seeks to have its way in our world.  We will, as Lewis said, get in “good trouble”.

God sent Jesus into the world not so we could gloat over being children of God but so we could say, God is for you too, whether you know it or not.  To be born again is to face the truth that God loves all people and it is to face this truth over and over and over again, until it finally sinks in. 

The Triune God is                     

“The Lover, The Beloved, 

and the Love who binds all 

together in One.”

Augustine

Prayer thought for the day:  “Lord, blow over me with the wind of love that I might be born from above and make a difference in someones life today.”

May 23, 2021 The Day Of Pentecost

 John 15:26-27

26 "When the Friend I plan to send you from the Father comes - the Spirit of Truth issuing from the Father - he will confirm everything about me. 27 You, too, from your side must give your confirming evidence, since you are in this with me from the start.”

The Holy Spirit is about power.  Power to believe; power to show mercy and kindness; power to live in hope. Power to change and be changed.  

Even power to be nonviolent.  It is an energizing power.

God gives us his Spirit to be creatively alive, creatively different (sometimes disturbingly so) and creatively compassionate.  And even to get in “good trouble.”

This is what is needed in our world today - revolutionary and redemptive activity!

Forging a new humanity in God’s name.

A humanity which erases distinctions between people. which regards none from the human point of view, but Jesus’ point of view where forgiveness is  paramount, and all are precious.

“God is the ultimate nonviolent one, 

so we dare not accept any theory of 

salvation—much less socialization, 

economics, or politics—that is based 

on violence, exclusion, social pressure, 

or moral coercion. When we do, these 

are legitimated as a proper way of life. 

God saves by loving and including, 

not by excluding or punishing.” 

 Rohr

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, empower me with your Spirit that I might be creatively compassionate in all…yes all…that I do.  And forgive me when I am not, so I can try again.” 

May 16, 2021 Seventh Sunday of Easter

John 17:14-19  (The Message)

14 I (Jesus) gave them (the disciples) your word; The godless world hated them because of it, Because they didn't join the world's ways, 15 Just as I didn't join the world's ways. I'm not asking that you take them out of the world But that you guard them from the Evil One. 16 They are no more defined by the world Than I am defined by the world. 17 Make them holy - consecrated - with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth. 18 In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. 19 I'm consecrating myself for their sakes So they'll be truth-consecrated in their mission.

The story is told of a Norwegian pastor who, during the German occupation of World War II was called into the Gestapo Headquarters for interrogation.  Before the Gestapo officer began he took his Luger out and placed in on the desk.  Immediately the pastor pulled out his Bible and placed in beside the Luger.  “Why did you do that?” the officer asked.  “You put your weapon on the table, I did too!”, replied the Pastor.

The Bible is our weapon - not for evil but for good.  To be sanctified in it’s truth is to live in love and compassion, not hatred and condemnation.  We are to  dare risk loving rather than hating for loving is a more difficult and profound emotion.  It can do what nothing else can do!

Martin Luther King in Strength to Love:  

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.

Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. 

Hatred darkens life; loved illumines it.

“We need to spend more time in God’s Word.  

Not to be better informed of God’s’ Word, 

but to be better formed by God’s Word.”

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, forgive me for neglecting Your Word

as a lamp for my living.  Open my heart to the light of your Word, so I can be formed by it.”  

May 9, 2021 Sixth Sunday of Easter

John 15:9, 12-15, 17  (The Message)

9 "I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love…12 This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you.  13 This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. 14 You are my friends when you do the things I command you. 15 I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father… 17 "But remember the root command: Love one another.

 

Jesus calls his disciples (and us) to be imaginative lovers.  We have been appointed to love, be it easy or hard; simple or extreme.

The four Chaplains on the Dorchester are an extreme example of love.

We may not be called upon for such acts of love but we are called to love, and that means to be there when we are needed and to not give up on one another.

Frederick Buechner puts it his way:

“Of all powers, love is the most powerful and the most

powerless.  It is the most powerful because it alone can

conquer that final and most impregnable stronghold which

is the human heart.  It is the most powerless because it

can do nothing except by consent.  To say that love is 

God is romantic idealism.  To say that God is love is either

the last straw or the ultimate truth.  In the Christian sense,

love is not primarily an emotion but an act of will.  When 

Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, he is not telling us to

love them in the sense of responding to them with a cozy

emotional feeling.  You can as well produce a cozy emotional

feeling on demand as you can a yawn or a sneeze.  On the 

contrary, he is telling us to love our neighbors in the sense

of being willing to work for their well-being even if it

means sacrificing our own well-being to that end, ...”                                                (Listening To Your Life, p.242) 

“…he is telling us to love our neighbors 

in the sense of being willing to work for 

their well-being even if it means sacrificing 

our own well-being to that end.”

      Frederick Buechner

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to love as I have been loved;

even if it means I can’t hide behind my “rights”, but have to consider the well being of others, even those I don’t like.”

May 2, 2021 Fifth Sunday of Easter

 John 15:1-5  (The Message)

1 "I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. 2 He cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. 3 You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken. 4 "Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. 5 "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant.

We go to church to be changed - changed into Christ’s likeness so we might be more fruitful in our living.  So we might bear much fruit.

We go not to keep bad things from happening to us, but so good things can happen through us.  It is where we are pruned so we can produce good fruit.  Pruned to love more and hate less.  Pruned to accept difference more and judge less.  Pruned so we can forgive more, trust more, be gracious more, be more like Christ.  We may not like it at first; it certainly will not be easy, but it is the way it is when Christ comes into our lives.  It changes everything . And we need a lot of pruning to get it right;  to bear abundant  fruit in our lives.

“He cuts off every branch of me       

that doesn't bear grapes. And 

every branch that is grape-bearing 

he prunes back so it will bear even more.”

John 15:2

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, prune me and help me to bear abundant fruit in your kingdom, your kingdom on earth.”