Acts 2:1-21 or Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:22-27 or Acts 2:1-21
John 15:26-27;16:4b-15
Patience is a huge issue in truth-receiving and truth-telling. It is difficult to acknowledge we only see through a glass -- dimly.
Sneaky and Ellusive, Demanding and Allusive, so a Holy Spirit interacts with us. We press so hard for finality that often we find ourselves having avoided and limited that was sent. Our recievers are locked on one frequency while messages come on a variety of frequencies.
We cut off possibilities still available as impossible to happen as dry bones are to live again. A Holy Spirit revises our vision or lack thereof.
This week we continue ready to wait and to jump to with prophecy and to wait some more. Listen for a creative wind.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Sunday, April 30, 2006
May 28, 2006 - Year B -Easter 7
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
1 John 5:9-13
John 17:6-19
What is your name, your character, your nature?
Might it be Protecter?
Might it be Eternal?
Might it be Ent? [giant tree-like creatures who have become like the trees they shepherd and protect]
Might it be Prophet?
To which of these passages are you drawn? What would be your Myers-Briggs assessment of the personality of each name or passage? If you use a different personality descriptor, what attributes would you give to each character or nature in these passages?
As you look at the communities which which you spend the most time, what is their name, character, nature and your place within such? What needs to change within yourself and your community that your name might be more clearly lived and not simply be an appellation.
Psalm 1
1 John 5:9-13
John 17:6-19
What is your name, your character, your nature?
Might it be Protecter?
Might it be Eternal?
Might it be Ent? [giant tree-like creatures who have become like the trees they shepherd and protect]
Might it be Prophet?
To which of these passages are you drawn? What would be your Myers-Briggs assessment of the personality of each name or passage? If you use a different personality descriptor, what attributes would you give to each character or nature in these passages?
As you look at the communities which which you spend the most time, what is their name, character, nature and your place within such? What needs to change within yourself and your community that your name might be more clearly lived and not simply be an appellation.
May 21, 2006 - Year B -Easter 6
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
Completed joy is something yearned for and yet resisted in light of the joy of the journey.
Conquering joy is something we know all too much about. It is the thrill of victory with nary a trace of the agony of defeat. An impulse to power and connecting that with joy excuses all too many acts of violence, including that preeminent one of war.
Righteous joy conditions us to a legal approach to living and sharing. Judgment and equity, to be joyful, must end up on our side. Any bias toward the poor can be shredded by an appeal to righteous living as evidenced by a claim to joy through property, status, or any other hierarchical system.
Ecstatic joy brings us full circle when we use it as a measuring rod for completedness.
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
Completed joy is something yearned for and yet resisted in light of the joy of the journey.
Conquering joy is something we know all too much about. It is the thrill of victory with nary a trace of the agony of defeat. An impulse to power and connecting that with joy excuses all too many acts of violence, including that preeminent one of war.
Righteous joy conditions us to a legal approach to living and sharing. Judgment and equity, to be joyful, must end up on our side. Any bias toward the poor can be shredded by an appeal to righteous living as evidenced by a claim to joy through property, status, or any other hierarchical system.
Ecstatic joy brings us full circle when we use it as a measuring rod for completedness.
May 14, 2006 - Year B -Easter 5
Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8
To know and to be known, inside out, is a great pleasure and a great threat. As we look at these passages we wrestle with boundarys of intrinsic and shared worth.
What abides in you? An alien waiting to punch through your chest? A waiting prodigal parent? Can you abide being abided in? What then of myself? Do I live or am I but alive when lived through?
As G*D abides in me am I to so abide in others? What does that do to my control of self and others? Does being loved mean I get what I need as an infant, I get to reject it in adolescence, I can always come back to it? Is love contingent upon my response?
Where does this come into play with faithful mothers and over-protective mothers and hurtful mothers? What about the mother part of each one of us, whether biologic mothers or not?
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8
To know and to be known, inside out, is a great pleasure and a great threat. As we look at these passages we wrestle with boundarys of intrinsic and shared worth.
What abides in you? An alien waiting to punch through your chest? A waiting prodigal parent? Can you abide being abided in? What then of myself? Do I live or am I but alive when lived through?
As G*D abides in me am I to so abide in others? What does that do to my control of self and others? Does being loved mean I get what I need as an infant, I get to reject it in adolescence, I can always come back to it? Is love contingent upon my response?
Where does this come into play with faithful mothers and over-protective mothers and hurtful mothers? What about the mother part of each one of us, whether biologic mothers or not?
May 7, 2006 - Year B -Easter 4
Acts 4:5-12
Psalm 23
1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18
Definitions define. "I am the definer", to modify a phrase.
Is my life taken or given? I am the definer.
Are my actions loving or not? I am the definer.
Am I walking through a dark valley or a green pasture? I am the definer.
Is this healing from Jesus or spontaneous regeneration? I am the definer.
Are all definitions equal, dictionary-wise? Are all definitions up for grab, Humpty Dumpty-wise? Where does my definition end and yours begin? Can I define you out if you define me in?
What needs better defining in your life and in the life of the community of faith and of living that you participate in?
Psalm 23
1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18
Definitions define. "I am the definer", to modify a phrase.
Is my life taken or given? I am the definer.
Are my actions loving or not? I am the definer.
Am I walking through a dark valley or a green pasture? I am the definer.
Is this healing from Jesus or spontaneous regeneration? I am the definer.
Are all definitions equal, dictionary-wise? Are all definitions up for grab, Humpty Dumpty-wise? Where does my definition end and yours begin? Can I define you out if you define me in?
What needs better defining in your life and in the life of the community of faith and of living that you participate in?
Sunday, April 23, 2006
April 30, 2006 - Year B -Easter 3
Acts 3:12-19
Psalm 4
1 John 3:1-7
Luke 24:36b-48
Peace goes beyond the comfort of ignorance or being consciously deceived. A way to peace is through awareness of sin and suffering and a moving beyond them by steps, individual and communal, to a place of safety in gladness.
As the week proceeds we prepare ourselves for a holistic peace beyond a piecemeal peace.
Psalm 4
1 John 3:1-7
Luke 24:36b-48
Peace goes beyond the comfort of ignorance or being consciously deceived. A way to peace is through awareness of sin and suffering and a moving beyond them by steps, individual and communal, to a place of safety in gladness.
As the week proceeds we prepare ourselves for a holistic peace beyond a piecemeal peace.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
April 23, 2006 - Year B -Easter 2
Acts 4:32-35
Psalm 133
1 John 1:1 - 2:2
John 20:19-31
It is one thing to look toward what we might have in common as property. It is another thing to find ourselves in common regarding vision and hope.
As we follow along to find where we have our commonality it will be important to remember the differences that will help sharpen the similarities and keep them alive past any present moment of confluence.
A clue to us will be those points of humor where we recognize how silly we have been and how open the future continues to be.
Psalm 133
1 John 1:1 - 2:2
John 20:19-31
It is one thing to look toward what we might have in common as property. It is another thing to find ourselves in common regarding vision and hope.
As we follow along to find where we have our commonality it will be important to remember the differences that will help sharpen the similarities and keep them alive past any present moment of confluence.
A clue to us will be those points of humor where we recognize how silly we have been and how open the future continues to be.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
April 16, 2006 - Year B -Easter
Acts 10:34-43 or Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
I Corinthians 15:1-11 or Acts 10:34-43
John 20:1-18 or Mark 16:1-8
Sabbath is prelude. There is evening (1) and morning (2). The first day of the week begins again. A new earth and new heaven continue underway.
Easter is tied with these progressions.
Our difficulty is that of taking a snapshot and trying to see it in three- or four- or more-D. In some sense we are vaccinated, year by year, with the static theory of eggs and bunnies and butterflies. We have a devil of a time getting our minds around resurrection, whether it be resuscitation or reincarnation or some other re-.
Mark might well be our guide here with his dramatic ending of fear and silence. Without these Easter is but a variation on a bonnet parade, full of sound and fury, signifying naught.
What is your fear and silence quotient this year?
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
I Corinthians 15:1-11 or Acts 10:34-43
John 20:1-18 or Mark 16:1-8
Sabbath is prelude. There is evening (1) and morning (2). The first day of the week begins again. A new earth and new heaven continue underway.
Easter is tied with these progressions.
Our difficulty is that of taking a snapshot and trying to see it in three- or four- or more-D. In some sense we are vaccinated, year by year, with the static theory of eggs and bunnies and butterflies. We have a devil of a time getting our minds around resurrection, whether it be resuscitation or reincarnation or some other re-.
Mark might well be our guide here with his dramatic ending of fear and silence. Without these Easter is but a variation on a bonnet parade, full of sound and fury, signifying naught.
What is your fear and silence quotient this year?
Sunday, April 02, 2006
April 9, 2006 - Year B -Palm/Passion Sunday
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Mark 11:1-11 or John 12:12-16
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Mark 14:1-15:47 or Mark 15:1-39, (40-47)
Passion or Palm Sunday? Some years one seems more appropriate to the situation than the other. There is also the reality of ruts and we keep focusing on one or the other, year after year.
How might we continue to hold these two in tension as we need both to walk steadily along taking events as they come (Palm emphasis) and to recognize our aversion to tough spots and to keep them ever before us as a way of looking at the world (Passion emphasis).
My bias is for Palm Sunday and to let the troubles of tomorrow take care of themselves in due time. There is a surfeit of being able to find the downside of life and a deficit of finding something to celebrate in the direst of situations.
Mark 11:1-11 or John 12:12-16
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Mark 14:1-15:47 or Mark 15:1-39, (40-47)
Passion or Palm Sunday? Some years one seems more appropriate to the situation than the other. There is also the reality of ruts and we keep focusing on one or the other, year after year.
How might we continue to hold these two in tension as we need both to walk steadily along taking events as they come (Palm emphasis) and to recognize our aversion to tough spots and to keep them ever before us as a way of looking at the world (Passion emphasis).
My bias is for Palm Sunday and to let the troubles of tomorrow take care of themselves in due time. There is a surfeit of being able to find the downside of life and a deficit of finding something to celebrate in the direst of situations.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
April 2, 2006 - Year B - Lent 5
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-12 or Psalm 119:9-16
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
Two ways to refreshment and reorientation: Reapplication of the past and a shift of orientation toward the future. Both can bear much good fruit and when combined offer a quantum leap of presence in an iffy world.
This week count how many changes you ring on the past. This will give you a clue about your ability to not be bound by its tendrils.
This week count how well you are able to live with an ambiguous, guarantee-less future. This will give you a clue about your ability to wait for the prompting of Spirit.
Psalm 51:1-12 or Psalm 119:9-16
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
Two ways to refreshment and reorientation: Reapplication of the past and a shift of orientation toward the future. Both can bear much good fruit and when combined offer a quantum leap of presence in an iffy world.
This week count how many changes you ring on the past. This will give you a clue about your ability to not be bound by its tendrils.
This week count how well you are able to live with an ambiguous, guarantee-less future. This will give you a clue about your ability to wait for the prompting of Spirit.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
March 26, 2006 - Year B - Lent 4
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
What do you see as the cause of the ill-health of your various systems - personal, familial, congregational, communal, national, environmental?
By your analysis will come your own sign and action for healing?
How does looking upon Jesus Christ heal?
How do you become a sign of healing?
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
What do you see as the cause of the ill-health of your various systems - personal, familial, congregational, communal, national, environmental?
By your analysis will come your own sign and action for healing?
How does looking upon Jesus Christ heal?
How do you become a sign of healing?
Sunday, March 12, 2006
March 19, 2006 - Year B - Lent 3
Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
John 2:13-22
This week we might look at what clarifies the blockages of life. How do various limits help and restrict spiritual growth? Where does freedom help or restrict spiritual growth?
What linkages do you find between religious, personal, economic, political arenas of your life?
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
John 2:13-22
This week we might look at what clarifies the blockages of life. How do various limits help and restrict spiritual growth? Where does freedom help or restrict spiritual growth?
What linkages do you find between religious, personal, economic, political arenas of your life?
Sunday, March 05, 2006
March 12, 2006 - Year B - Lent 2
March 12, 2006
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Psalm 22:23-31
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38 or Mark 9:2-9
Jim Taylor's Sharp Edges column today is entitled "Contradictory Values." This gives us a lens through which to look at the scriptures for this week. What contradictory values show up in your life.
Read Jim's column and browse his archives for further helpful perspectives.
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Psalm 22:23-31
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38 or Mark 9:2-9
Jim Taylor's Sharp Edges column today is entitled "Contradictory Values." This gives us a lens through which to look at the scriptures for this week. What contradictory values show up in your life.
Read Jim's column and browse his archives for further helpful perspectives.
Monday, February 27, 2006
March 1, 2006 - Year B - Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 51:1-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b - 6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
The vision we have of where meaning is to be found will directly affect our interaction with other folks. Lent is as much about clarifying where meaning lies, as anything. Behind all the rules and deprivations of popular spirituality is a question about what is most deeply significant. The way we begin a Lenten season is important to the way in which we will probably end it (never discounting a sign or miracle coming our way that we recognize).
Psalm 51:1-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b - 6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
The vision we have of where meaning is to be found will directly affect our interaction with other folks. Lent is as much about clarifying where meaning lies, as anything. Behind all the rules and deprivations of popular spirituality is a question about what is most deeply significant. The way we begin a Lenten season is important to the way in which we will probably end it (never discounting a sign or miracle coming our way that we recognize).
March 5, 2006 - Year B - Lent 1
Genesis 9:8-17
Psalm 25:1-10
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:9-15
Covenants come in positive form - it is good, you are my beloved. Covenants come in negative form - I won't cut you entirely off.
As we begin a Lenten it will be important to identify what covenant we are moving toward and what covenant we are fasting from. Of most interest will be where we think there is a conflict between covenants and where we don't notice that one has taken precedence over another.
Psalm 25:1-10
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:9-15
Covenants come in positive form - it is good, you are my beloved. Covenants come in negative form - I won't cut you entirely off.
As we begin a Lenten it will be important to identify what covenant we are moving toward and what covenant we are fasting from. Of most interest will be where we think there is a conflict between covenants and where we don't notice that one has taken precedence over another.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
February 26, 2006 - Year B - Epiphany Last/Transfiguration
2 Kings 2:1-12
Psalm 50:1-6
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Mark 9:2-9
It is so easy for Christ to be veiled. We fear to tell the truth we know and reduce it to the truth an institution knows. We are in the presence of light that brings together all our relevant past and illumines a direction from here and have no idea how to translate such an experience into language for ourselves or any one else. We fear that judgment is going to be condemnatory, not forgiving and we lose track of the presence of a G*D of steadfast love. We look for a double share of grace and turn it to our own advantage, hiding, not revealing, Christ.
Psalm 50:1-6
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Mark 9:2-9
It is so easy for Christ to be veiled. We fear to tell the truth we know and reduce it to the truth an institution knows. We are in the presence of light that brings together all our relevant past and illumines a direction from here and have no idea how to translate such an experience into language for ourselves or any one else. We fear that judgment is going to be condemnatory, not forgiving and we lose track of the presence of a G*D of steadfast love. We look for a double share of grace and turn it to our own advantage, hiding, not revealing, Christ.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
February 19, 2006 - Year B - Epiphany 7
Isaiah 43:18-25
Psalm 41
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12
Faithfulness is an important category for meaning.
There is a call to be faithful to the past, but not so rigidly that we fail to be faithful to an emerging future.
There is a call to be faithful to neighbors and to G*D without one negating the other.
There is a call to a faithfulness that goes beyond consistency, else we couldn't participate in justice for both the poor and the rich, the strong and the weak.
Psalm 41
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12
Faithfulness is an important category for meaning.
There is a call to be faithful to the past, but not so rigidly that we fail to be faithful to an emerging future.
There is a call to be faithful to neighbors and to G*D without one negating the other.
There is a call to a faithfulness that goes beyond consistency, else we couldn't participate in justice for both the poor and the rich, the strong and the weak.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
February 12, 2006 - Year B - Epiphany 6
2 Kings 5:1-14
Psalm 30
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Mark 1:40-45
Do you do what you do do for a reward?
Well, a word of thanks would be nice.
If you do it for reward, will you then take back what you do if thanks or other recognition is not given in the way you desire it to be shown?
What do you do for either the sheer joy of doing it or because it is what you understand is asked of you to be in touch with a larger meaning of life? Yes, count those ways!
Psalm 30
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Mark 1:40-45
Do you do what you do do for a reward?
Well, a word of thanks would be nice.
If you do it for reward, will you then take back what you do if thanks or other recognition is not given in the way you desire it to be shown?
What do you do for either the sheer joy of doing it or because it is what you understand is asked of you to be in touch with a larger meaning of life? Yes, count those ways!
Sunday, January 29, 2006
February 5, 2006 - Year B - Epiphany 5
Isaiah 40:21-31
Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39
Particularity is something we continually have difficulty with. It runs contrary to our desire for universal meaning. The particulars are always changing and challenging to any system. Exceptions are required and that throws us off our throne of omnipotence and all-knowingness.
When we finally find out we can't escape the particulars we dive into them so deeply that we lose track of our commonality, our inescapable links with one another past all the limits of kith and kin.
This week we do what we can to be open to the warp and woof of life, the common and the particular, the universal and the unique. When we begin to see them woven together we are a step beyond fear being a beginning place of wisdom.
Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39
Particularity is something we continually have difficulty with. It runs contrary to our desire for universal meaning. The particulars are always changing and challenging to any system. Exceptions are required and that throws us off our throne of omnipotence and all-knowingness.
When we finally find out we can't escape the particulars we dive into them so deeply that we lose track of our commonality, our inescapable links with one another past all the limits of kith and kin.
This week we do what we can to be open to the warp and woof of life, the common and the particular, the universal and the unique. When we begin to see them woven together we are a step beyond fear being a beginning place of wisdom.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
January 29, 2006 - Year B - Epiphany 4
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm 111
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28
What is our relationship with our various realities? How do we interact with demons, what are they to us. What about the survival issues of food and clothing? G*D is another aspect of living that we need to figure out about how we are going to be in covenant with one another. One of the more exciting challenges is that of new leadership and seeing the best of the past in something just coming into being.
As we go through the week it will be helpful to consider what we have to do with that which presents itself. Do we affirm it? deny it? classify it? ignore it? use it to our own ends? give thanks?
Psalm 111
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28
What is our relationship with our various realities? How do we interact with demons, what are they to us. What about the survival issues of food and clothing? G*D is another aspect of living that we need to figure out about how we are going to be in covenant with one another. One of the more exciting challenges is that of new leadership and seeing the best of the past in something just coming into being.
As we go through the week it will be helpful to consider what we have to do with that which presents itself. Do we affirm it? deny it? classify it? ignore it? use it to our own ends? give thanks?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)