June 18, 2017 2nd Sunday After Pentecost

  Matthew 10:34-39   (The Message)

34 "Don't think I've come to make life cozy. I've come to cut - 35 make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law - cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. 36 Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. 37 If you prefer father or mother over me, you don't deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don't deserve me. 38 "If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. 39 If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me.

Jesus didn’t come just to bless us into complacency, compliance, contentment;
He came to bless us into change.  Change which can be disruptive, disturbing, difficult, even destructive on the outside, as it seeks to make more real what is on the inside.
Destructive that is of those systems which are not life giving, just, fair, sensitive, compassionate.  Which are not doing good for the least as well as for the most.  Even if they are a part of our family.

In the novel " The Invention of Wings" a father, who had been very set in his ways, causing his daughter much anguish as she was not able to live her life free of the shackles placed on her as a white woman In the Deep South in the early 1800’s; a white woman who detested slavery and wanted to set her personal slave free, are having their last conversation before he dies.  She is caring for him alone, apart from the rest of the family.  He awakens from a nap..

‘I held the water glass to his lips and helped him to drink. He said, “We’ve had our quarrels, haven’t we?” I knew what was coming and I wanted to spare him. To spare me. “It doesn’t matter now.” “You’ve always had a strong, separate mind, perhaps even a radical mind, and I was harsh with you at times. You must forgive me.” I couldn’t imagine what it cost him to say these words. “I do,” I said. “And you must forgive me.” “Forgive you for what, Sarah? For following your conscience? Do you think I don’t abhor slavery as you do? Do you think I don’t know it was greed that kept me from following my conscience as you have? The plantation, the house, our entire way of life depended on the slaves.” His face contorted and he clutched at his side a moment before going on. “Or should I forgive you for wanting to give natural expression to your intellect? You were smarter than even Thomas or John, but you’re female, another cruelty I was helpless to change.”

He didn't dare risk change.  He died regretting it.  Indeed, it is an awesome, challenging, life transforming thing to be open to change!  It is at the center of a living faith!






"I'm not telling you it's going to be easy,
I'm telling you it's going to be worth it."










Prayer thoughts for the week’
Lord, help me:  remember that I am not the only one who is right.
   to be open to what I don’t want to hear.
   to not be so sure I can’t change my mind or heart.
   to remember that love is greater than principles.

June 11, 2017 The Holy Trinity

 “I didn't need to understand the                        

Matthew 28:16-20  (The Message)

16 Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. 17 The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally. 18 Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: 19 Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 20 Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

The Holy Trinity is a mystery.  After all is said and done to help us try understand it,
the mystery still remains.  Which is the way it should be.

Without mystery God becomes something less then God.
Without mystery life looses something deep and beautiful.

On Holy Trinity Sunday we celebrate this mystery as we worship God the Father, creator of all things; God the Son, Redeemer of all humankind, and God the Holy Spirit, Sanctifier of all who believe.  (And maybe even those who don’t seem to believe.)


“Great indeed…is the mystery of our religion.”  I Tim 3:16

“I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.”
― Anne Lamott,

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Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, the mystery is great;  the mystery is beautiful;  keep me in awe and alive to mystery.”

June 4, 2017  Day of Pentecost

John 20:19-23  (The Message)

19 Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, "Peace to you." 20 Then he showed them his hands and side. 21 Jesus repeated his greeting: "Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you." 22 Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. "Receive the Holy Spirit," he said. 23 "If you forgive someone's sins, they're gone for good. If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”


“Love implies forgiveness.  It is hard for us to realize, but actually the only requirement the loving Father places on us, once we come to know Him...is that we forgive as we have been forgiven.”  “The Other Side of Silence”, Morton Kelsey, p. 68

Forgiveness is a gift of God’s spirit.  It is central to ALL that Jesus said and did.
It is central to what the Church is ALL about.  It is a powerful, renewing, uplifting, hope filling, smile producing, releasing gift which in no way is meant to control or dominate the lives of others.  It is meant to set one free to really live, with new choices and chances, and renewed vigor.  We are to work at being forgiving until forgiveness works!

The goal of not forgiving is not to not be forgiving.  The goal of not forgiving is to help the process get to the placed where we can forgive.  For that is what love always wants to do, and must be ready to do.  For we have been forgiven much!






“Love implies forgiveness.”
Morton Kelsey








Prayer thoughts for the week.
"Lord help me to:  forgive when I don’t want to but need to:                            
 accept forgiveness as vital to a happy life.  (I do blow it a lot.)
        love, but not forgive when it becomes more enabling.
          work at being forgiven and forgiving until it works.
      never give up on forgiveness."

May 28, 2017 Easter 7

John 17: 10-11  (The Message)

Jesus is praying: “10 Everything mine is yours, and yours mine, And my life is on display in them. 11 For I'm no longer going to be visible in the world; They'll continue in the world while I return to you. Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life that you conferred as a gift through me, So they can be one heart and mind
11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.”

 “The petition that this community of believes be kept in God’s name is in effect a petition that love be the sign and seal of their common life.  Just as love marks the unity of the Father with his Son, and of the Son with his followers, so love shall mark the unity of God’s people and provide the power for their mission.”  From Proclamation

Our unity lies not in our sameness but in our love which transcends, embraces, encourages, applauds differentness.








“Living in love, not sameness,
is the mark of unity.”












Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, may love be the mark of unity for me.  Do matter what differentness I confront.”

May 21, 2017, Easter 6

 John 14:15-21  (The Message)

15 "If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you. 16 I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. 17 This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you! 18 "I will not leave you orphaned. I'm coming back. 19 In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you're going to see me because I am alive and you're about to come alive. 20 At that moment you will know absolutely that I'm in my Father, and you're in me, and I'm in you. 21 "The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that's who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him."

“Love is, as much as it is anything, a struggle together that is always seeded with new possibilities and challenges...even in old age.”    Eugene Kennedy

Jesus is talking about such a struggle in our text for today.
He is not talking about a comfortable system for getting into heaven.
He is talking about the struggle inherent in loving one’s neighbor as one’s self!
(This is how we love him!)

Jesus can be very demanding.  To know of his amazing grace is also to learn of his demanding love.  For once we are loved and know it, we have to love so others know it.

This is no extra curricular activity we are called to do. This is the heart of it all.  
We have been loved with a great love!  We are to love with a great love!

Prayer thought for the week:  “ Lord, help me to remember that nothing is too small for love.”





 

May 7, 2017 Easter 4

John 10:10

"I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly."     Jesus

In the book, “The Little Prince”, the following conversion takes place between a boy and a fox:    The fox is speaking to the boy:

“I have no need for you, and you, on your part, have no need of me.  To you, I am
nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.  But if you tame me, then we will need each other.  To me, you will be unique in all the world.
To you, I shall be unique in all the world.”

That’s the key to an abundant life, to be unique to someone!
And when that someone is God, life is abundant indeed!

God won’t live our lives for us; God will live our lives with us.
This is the uniqueness of faith, which becomes "a power and passion in authority
among the powers and passions of life."  P. T. Forsyth
And opens us up to an abundant life

"Faith is a power and passion in authority
among the powers and passions of life."
P. T. Forsyth










Picture: Bri Sykora

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, thank you for making me unique.  Help me to be unique
as I walk my journey in faith, hope, and love.  And may it be with power and passion!”

April 30, 2017

Luke 24:13-16(The Message)

13 That same day two of them were walking to the village Emmaus, about seven miles out of Jerusalem. 14 They were deep in conversation, going over all these things that had happened. 15 In the middle of their talk and questions, Jesus came up and walked along with them. 16 But they were not able to recognize who he was."

The challenge for us is to recognize Jesus walking with us, even when at first he is hidden from our sight.  For he often comes hidden in human acts of kindness, even those which seem so insignificant.

We were in Amman, Jordan, in a Orphanage for “throw away children”.  Children who were so severely challenged, both physically and mentally that they could do little for themselves.  We fed them, played with them, took them outside.  We tried to be hospitable with them.  Little seemed to make much difference in their miserable existence.

Then on Friday morning a well dressed man entered the Orphanage.  Suit, tie, very “western” looking.  As soon as he entered all the children began to squeal and make what ever noise they could.  We stood in awe as he removed his suit coat and began one by one to call the children by name and gently but firmly move their twisted limbs.
It look like it might hurt.  It did some.  They enjoyed every minute of it.   And each had their turn.

When he was finished he sat with us.  He told us he was a Physical Therapist, a Muslim who instead of going to Mosque came weekly to the Orphanage to spend some time
with the children.  The children who were hopelessly deformed and for whom he could do little good.  Except give them a few moments of loving touch.

When he left we all agreed that we had seen Jesus - in that man and in the love of his touch!  We were surprised by the discovery; and overjoyed to have our eyes opened to see that Jesus walks with all who touch in love!




"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, help me to remember nothing is too small to be unimportant to you.  May something of your love be seen in my touch this week, and always.”