July 22, 2018 9
th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 6:30-32  (The Message)

30 The apostles then rendezvoused with Jesus and reported on all that they had done and taught. 31 Jesus said, "Come off by yourselves; let's take a break and get a little rest." For there was constant coming and going. They didn't even have time to eat. 32 So they got in the boat and went off to a remote place by themselves.

We need to spend time alone so we can truly be with others in compassion.
Alone time feeds our souls; energizes us; fills us; renews us.
If I don’t take time for myself; I don’t have much to give you either.

For as Henri Nouwen writes in “The Way Of The Heart”,

“Compassion is the fruit of solitude and the basis of all ministry. …(for)
solitude molds self-righteous persons into gentle, caring, forgiving persons who are so deeply convinced of their own sinfulness and so fully aware of God's even greater mercy that their whole lives become ministry.”
pp. 20,22




“Compassion is the fruit of
solitude…”  Henri  Nouwen








Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to find some “time alone” in my busy week,  so I can hear your “still small voice” and be more loving when busy.”

July 15, 2018  8th Sunday After Pentecost
Mark 6:14-29

(Because of the length of this message I ask you to dig out your Bible and read this story - it is the beheading of John the Baptist.  And because I have never preached on it in 35 years, I turn to a current Associate Professor of Preaching at Luther Seminary Karoline Lewis for her take on this powerful text. )

“It would be all too easy to pass over this incident as simply an historical marker in the life of Jesus. This is what happened to John the Baptist. That’s unfortunate. But we act out such dismissal at our own peril. In doing so, we pardon ourselves from our own culpability in brushing under the table the risks of the Gospel. Risks that challenge the powers that be are certain to result in risks to your own survival.

Because here is a story that reveals just how dysfunctional and distorted perceived power can be. It’s an important warning at this point in the Gospel. … that what Jesus has come to challenge, upend, question, is those persons and those empires who rule by and uphold values completely antithetical to the in-breaking of God’s kingdom in Jesus.

It’s a critical warning.

And yet, we are witnesses to a daily unfolding of excuses for distortions and misappropriations of power. Propping up potentates for the sake of preserving supremacy. Overlooking the most observable, most obvious fallacies and fallacious acts as acceptable and as actual acts of accountability for the sake of…of…what? A crucial element of John’s beheading is the way in which it calls out an utter void of responsibility. Power, institutions, systems, including the church, that do not acknowledge accountability and responsibility for their actions, that are incapable of justifying and validating theologically and biblically their decisions, should expect to be notified by someone like Mark.

Do not let this pericope pass you by without asking yourself, … does my ministry (faith) ever warrant my head on a platter? Or, do I avoid any kind of proclamation that might lead to my own beheading, metaphorical or otherwise?”

Karoline Lewis

Pope Benedict XVI












Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, forgive me my fear of having to pay a price for following you.  Give me strength to speak the truth in love.”

July 8, 2018 7th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 6:1-6  (The Message)

1 He left there and returned to his hometown. His disciples came along. 2 On the Sabbath, he gave a lecture in the meeting place. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. "We had no idea he was this good!" they said. "How did he get so wise all of a sudden, get such ability?" 3 But in the next breath they were cutting him down: "He's just a carpenter - Mary's boy. We've known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers, James, Justus, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. (And they took offense at him.)  Who does he think he is?" They tripped over what little they knew about him and fell, sprawling. And they never got any further. 4 Jesus told them, "A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child." 5 Jesus wasn't able to do much of anything there - he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that's all. 6 He couldn't get over their stubbornness.”


When God comes to us in too human a way (Jesus) and challenges us to change our ways, we too “take offense at Him”.
We like to keep God boxed up in our rituals where we are in control.
But God will not let us do that.  God is not a rabbits foot, a good luck charm, an easy way out of the difficulties of life.
God desires to enter into the changes and chances of life with us, and there make a difference,
not by offering new power or easy answers which eliminates all the bad and protects us from suffering, but offering a power make perfect in weakness - the power of love…of grace which is sufficient for all our needs.





                                                                                                                             
“God desires to enter into the changes
and chances of life and make a difference”









Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, be with me in the ‘changes and chances’ of this week and
help me make a difference in someone’s life.”

June 24, 2018 5th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 4:35-41  (The Message)

35 Late that day he said to them, "Let's go across to the other side." 36 They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. 37 A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. 38 And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, "Teacher, is it nothing to you that we're going down?" 39 Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, "Quiet! Settle down!" The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. 40 Jesus reprimanded the disciples: "Why are you such cowards? Don't you have any faith at all?" 41 They were in absolute awe, staggered. "Who is this, anyway?" they asked. "Wind and sea at his beck and call!"

We look for signs of God caring for us by how God uses his power for us - in miraculous ways.  Perhaps we need to look again at how God cares for us, not in miracles, but in the miracle of our faith.

What if the disciples had fought the storm rather then wake Jesus, trusting that they could do it? What if they had made the miracle happen (getting through the storm) by trusting that Jesus did care about them and trusting their own God given strength to overcome?  It would still have been a miracle!

This is not to diminish the uniqueness of what Jesus did; and the sign it is for who he is!
It is to say that there are miracles of God in the ordinary, not just the extraordinary things of life.

Jesus calls for the faith which empowers one to believe strong enough to create one’s own miracle, by not letting fear immobilize and paralyze; by daring to believe against all odds that God is for us, not against us. always!
Don’t wait for God to do it for you.  Ask God to do it with you and see what miracles can be created when you dare to believe that asleep or awake, God does care for you.






“There are miracles of God
in the ordinary, not just the
extraordinary things of life.”










Prayer though for the week:  “Lord, help me be a miracle this week, in ordinary ways which help get through the storms of life.”

June 17, 2018 4rd Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 4:30-32  (The Message)

30 "How can we picture God's kingdom? What kind of story can we use? 31 It's like a pine nut. When it lands on the ground it is quite small as seeds go, 32 yet once it is planted it grows into a huge pine tree with thick branches. Eagles nest in it.”

The Kingdom of God seems terribly insignificant and insufficient in the affairs of the world, yet it has the dynamic that can make the difference even in our world.

That dynamic is the love of God as known in Jesus Christ.  A love which is individual and universal.  “If Christianity doesn’t begin with the individual it doesn’t begin; but if it ends with the individual, it ends.”

The parable of the “pine nut” (mustard) seed reminds us that God often works God’s purposes out through the insignificant.  In the Kingdom of God, it is not bigness which counts, but making a difference in someone’s life.



"All gestures of love,
however small they be,
in favor of the poor and
the unwanted, are
important to Jesus."
               Mother Teresa




Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, it sometimes seems like it is too small to make a difference -my smile, my kind word, my gift.  Help me remember
that no matter how small, it counts in your eyes, and makes a difference.”

June 10, 2018  Pentecost 3

 Mark 3:28-30

28-30 “Listen to this carefully. I’m warning you. There’s nothing done or said that can’t be forgiven. But if you persist in your slanders against God’s Holy Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives, sawing off the branch on which you’re sitting, severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives.” He gave this warning because they were accusing him of being in league with Evil.”  The Promise

28 "Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"— 30 for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit.” NRSV

What ever Jesus means about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - a sin which cannot be forgiven -  this is for sure: anyone who fears they have committed it haven’t.
It is a sin which happens when we believe we are right so strongly that we are not open to any other thought or any other possibility. We are not even open to the Holy Spirit having something different to say to us and through us. It is not letting anything – even the spirit of God which blows over us and through us like the wind - change our closed mind and heart.

As we struggle with faith, hope, and love in our lives we need the encouragement which comes from the promise of forgiveness, not the threat of condemnation. The God (Jesus) I meet in the New Testament is a God who would rather forgive then condemn, and doesn't like the unforgivable sin any more than we do.

 





“It is a reminder that a totally
closed mind and heart are
headed on a dead end street.”










Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, open my mind and heart to what Your Spirit wants me to hear, believe, and do.”  Amen

June 3, 2018 2nd Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 3:24-26  (The Message)

“24-26   A constantly squabbling family disintegrates. If Satan were fighting Satan, there soon wouldn't be any Satan left.”

Revised Standard Version
“24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.

A divided Kingdom is sure to fail.  A true Kingdom is one where all are brothers and sisters.

Dare we say it?  Jesus words regarding a divided kingdom remind us of what is happening in our country and world right now.  This is no way to live in our earthly kingdom and it no way to live in the Kingdom of God.

We are called to live in harmony, letting the spirit of goodness, mercy and respect lead us to decisions which must be made for the good of all.  For we are family!  And only as we live as family will we be able to stand, and standing,  be a blessing to others.



“Hatred paralyzes life;
love releases it.
Hatred confuses life;
love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life;
love illumines it.”
Martin Luther King










Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me live for more than myself.  Make me a loving
instrument of your love, and be a blessing even to those I know not.”