tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89719318821471655932024-03-21T18:16:30.074-07:00Feminist Theology in an Age of Fear and HopeTerrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.comBlogger249125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-35815129747049471502013-04-20T14:43:00.001-07:002013-04-20T14:43:27.672-07:00An offlectionary reflection on Tamar, survivor of rape<div>
Beyond the lectionary:"the silencing of Tamar, daughter of David, survivor of rape" by Janine Goodwin</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
2 Samuel 13<br /><i> Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore the long robe that she was
wearing; she put her hand on her head, and went away, crying aloud as
she went.
</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ordinarily, this week's reflection
would be on the readings for Easter 4 of year C. Events over the past
several weeks, however, have led me to remember a reading that is not in
the lectionary, and to remember it with such persistence and urgency
that I feel called to bring this story to you and ask you, too, to hear
it, to pray with it, and to ask where it may call you.<br />
<br /> Tamar's story is found in 2 Samuel 13 and is reprinted at the end
of this reflection; if you are unfamiliar with it, please read it first.
It is one of the four stories of abused women studied by Phyllis Trible
in her brilliant and readable work of biblical scholarship, <i>Texts of Terror</i>.<i> </i>When
the book was originally presented as a lecture series, the subtitle was
"Unpreached Stories of Faith," because none of the four Biblical
stories in the book--of Hagar, Tamar, an unnamed woman, and the daughter
of Jephthah--are included in the three-year cycle of Bible readings
that shapes the preaching and the faith of so many of our churches. <br />
<br />I ask you, first, to consider that this story has not been given the
attention it would get if it were in the lectionary. According to the
Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (<a href="http://www.rainn.org/" target="_blank">www.rainn.org</a>),
the nation's largest organization addressing these issues, more than
200,000 people, male and female, ages twelve and over are sexually
assaulted every year in the United States alone--that's one assault
every two minutes. Most of those people know their attacker or
attackers: 73% of assaults are committed by someone the victim knows.
Fewer than half of those assaults are ever reported, and only 3% of the
perpetrators ever spends a day in jail. More than 25% of women have
survived sexual assault at some point in their lives. A smaller number
and proportion of men are victims of sexual assault: the impact on their
lives is just as destructive and the stigma and silencing may even be
greater for them. While the vast majority of assaults are committed
against women by men, and this reflection is mainly about the suffering
of women and discusses some current examples of how those stories match
Tamar's, the experiences of male victims and survivors of sexual assault
call for our attention and respect, and it is also true that some of
the perpetrators of sexual assault are women. Most often, men assault
women, but this is not just about women and men: it is about power and
betrayal, trust destroyed and lives damaged.<br />
<br />Tamar's story, then, is something more than a quarter of any given
congregation, female and male, can understand from Tamar's perspective;
far too many people can understand it from Amnon's, Jonadab's, and
David's as well, but that fact has never been mentioned in a church in
my hearing. I understand the difficulties of telling this grim and
painful story in a church full of people of varying ages and views, and
yet I can't help noticing that stories of rape and sexual assault are
ever-present in our culture. These stories are on the nightly news and
in the headlines; they are presented as entertainment on TV, in movies,
and online; they are the subject of discussion and, sadly, of jokes
everywhere, because far too many people still think sexual assault is
funny. I first read Tamar's story at eight when I was trying to follow a
"read the Bible in a year" program, and I remember hearing rape jokes
on the grade-school playground in the 1960s; sheltering a child from
Tamar's story at church does not keep that child from hearing it
elsewhere, or keep anyone from living it without the support of her or
his church community. Yet Tamar's story doesn't get told in the
liturgical cycle. It doesn't get told unless someone chooses to break
away from the lectionary. Tamar is still silenced in the churches.<br />
</div>
<div>
<br />I heard Tamar's cry in the suicides of two young women
whose stories of sexual assault were publicized on the Internet and over
cellphone networks by the alleged attackers, and in the testimony of
the survivor in the Steubenville rape case. In each of these three
cases, a young woman went to a party, became unconscious, and awoke to
find evidence that she had been sexually assaulted, that pictures of the
assault (or alleged assault, in the cases that have not come to trial)
were being sent around electronically, and that she, not the young men
who committed the acts or took the pictures, was being bullied, shamed,
and blamed. Online comments and sometimes even reporting have, far too
often, reflected a common attitude: that the problem is that young women
sometimes drink too much, not that others assault and then bully them. <br />
<br />While I am absolutely opposed to underage drinking, I cannot believe
that sexual assault and shaming are logical and inevitable consequences
of underage drinking, consequences that apply (almost always) only to
girls. When people assume that young men will assault any young woman
who is incapacitated, they assume that all young men are rapists waiting
for an opportunity, waiting for a victim. If that is the common belief
about young men, that belief, and the way we raise young men, needs to
change. I don't believe most young men are rapists, though it seems
obvious that more young people will commit sexual assault if they are
taught that it is something to brag about and that there are no
consequences for it. If we perpetuate rape culture, rape culture will
survive. If we teach all people that their sisters and brothers are to
be treated with respect no matter where they are or what they are doing,
and that it is always wrong to engage in sexual behavior without full
and conscious consent, the vast majority of them will take that teaching
to heart. <br />
<br />I also believe that blaming the victim is always a way of trying not
to look at the problem, of trying to escape suffering, of avoiding
change. It is far easier to blame a victim than it is to look at the
terrifying prevalence of sexism and rape in our culture and say, "This
is wrong. This has to change." It is far easier to accept the age-old
premise that men can refuse to control themselves without penalty but
that women must always be in control (and may be blamed for men's
behavior even when they are in control of themselves), yet the
out-of-control behavior of men can't be helped. That is the premise
underlying the shaming of Tamar; it is an old lie.<br />
</div>
<div>
Look at Tamar's story. Read it alongside the news
reports. Tamar's half-brother Amnon (they had different mothers) is
obsessed with her; the story calls that obsession love, but we need not.
We know about stalking and obsession, and we know obsession is not
love: St. Thomas Aquinas, in one of his best insights. defined love as
"desiring the good of the other," and by that wise and holy definition
we see that Amnon does not love Tamar. We see, in our terms, that he is
something like a stalker, and he is plotting a rape. But she trusts him.
She trusts him the way the young women in the news stories trusted the
young men around them: they were friends, classmates. They were like
brothers and sisters, and no matter how wrong it may have been to have
drinking parties that included underage people, these young women
trusted the young men as young people trust each other.<br />
<br />Amnon and his friend Jonadab scheme to trap Tamar. Especially in
group assaults, there can be an element not just of opportunism, but of
conspiracy and planning; while I don't know whether this is true of any
of the recent reports, there are those who will put extra alcohol in an
intended victim's drink, or spike it with drugs, or just make sure there
is always another drink in her hand.<br />
</div>
<div>
In a passage that is not like a story of our time at
first glance, Tamar urges her brother not to rape her, but to ask David
for her. It is possible that at the time of the story, half-siblings of
royal families could marry; it is unclear whether this is the case in
this story. What is clear is that Tamar does not objectify Amnon as he
objectifies her. She has come to bring him food because she thinks he is
ill. She desires his good. She does not want to be destroyed by him and
she thinks of her whole life and his, while he thinks only of what he
wants to do. Even this has a parallel: again, young people can't believe
their friends and classmates would violate and humiliate them. Even
when they are doing things they shouldn't, they think they are among
people they can trust. It is their trust, not just their vulnerability,
that is betrayed by sexual assault.<br />
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
After the rape, Tamar, the innocent, is the
focus of shame. Amnon, who was obsessed with her, the one who used her
body against her will, hates her; while the writer of the original story
did not understand that he had never cared about her and had wanted
only to use her, never to love her, it is now clear even to that writer.
The rapist, Amnon, faces no consequences from his father, King David.
Amnon is a favorite of the one in power. Until another brother takes
vengeance by killing him, there is no consequence from outside himself,
though he has clearly lost the capacity to love and respect others. This
is no small loss: this is the loss of his own soul, something people of
faith should take seriously; even though his outward life continues
unchanged, he has destroyed himself. Tamar's life is completely
shattered: after her cry of lamentation, she is silenced and lives in
disgrace. After the assaults of the young women, pictures of the
acknowledged crime the and alleged crimes were posted on the Internet
and sent from one cellphone to another; the victims were hated, hazed,
and mocked at school and online. As long as victims are blamed, as long
as human beings are first objectified, then used, then hated, the shame
of Tamar continues. As long as these crimes are not reported, not
prosecuted, not taken seriously by authorities, Tamar is silenced and
again. <br />
</div>
<div>
How long?<br /></div>
<div>
How long will this story
continue, with only the changes brought about by new technology, by the
occasional legal case won by overwhelming evidence, by laws that change
too slowly and are too seldom enforced? How long will most sexual
assaults go unreported, often because group loyalty is given to the
perpetrators, not the victims? How many more suicides will there be when
young women lose not only their trust in their male friends but their
ability to live their lives, and some choose not to live at all? How
many more lives will be shattered by the post-traumatic stress disorder
that so often follows sexual assault? How many more Tamars will there
be? There never has to be even one. There has never had to be even one.
How many young men will be encouraged to give up desiring the good of
the other and become Amnon or Jonadab because they are led to believe
that their peers are not their friends who deserve their loyalty and
concern, but their prey? How many Davids, people with the power to
arrest and prosecute and legislate, will go on perpetuating the "boys
will be boys" myth by their silence or by their support of the
attackers?<br />
<br />How long will churches leave Tamar's story untold and unpreached,
even while there are so many Tamars (women and men) with so many
different stories of betrayal, shaming, and loss in every congregation?
How many Tamars will go on believing that their story is not to be told,
and that their churches will not stand with them if they speak? <br />
</div>
<div>
How long will it be before preachers look out at the
congregation and call the Amnons and the Jonadabs and the Davids to
account? It is time for preachers to begin to say, "If you have done
what Amnon did, you have committed a sin and a crime, you have destroyed
the souls of others and your own soul, and you need to repent and
change. If you identify with Amnon before his crime and would do what he
did, you need to stop in your tracks and find whatever help you need to
change before you destroy another human life. If you are Jonadab, you
need to turn around and change your attitudes and your ways, now. If you
are David in this story, a person of power who could help victims and
survivors and bring perpetrators to account, you are called to do so, no
matter who has committed the crime or who has suffered." <br />
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
How long? Not, "How long, O Lord," but how long until we hear the call to change?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If
preachers with congregations want to consider the problems and
possibilities of preaching Tamar's story in the comments, I'd welcome
the discussion. <br />
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>2 Samuel 13</b><br /> <i>David’s son Absalom had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar; and David’s son Amnon fell in love with her.
Amnon was so tormented that he made himself ill because of his sister
Tamar, for she was a virgin and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do
anything to her.
But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah; and Jonadab was a very crafty man.
He said to him, ‘O son of the king, why are you so haggard morning after
morning? Will you not tell me?’ Amnon said to him, ‘I love Tamar, my
brother Absalom’s sister.’
Jonadab said to him, ‘Lie down on your bed, and pretend to be ill; and
when your father comes to see you, say to him, “Let my sister Tamar come
and give me something to eat, and prepare the food in my sight, so that
I may see it and eat it from her hand.”<span> </span>’
So Amnon lay down, and pretended to be ill; and when the king came to
see him, Amnon said to the king, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and
make a couple of cakes in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand.’
</i><i> Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, ‘Go to your brother
Amnon’s house, and prepare food for him.’
So Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s house, where he was lying down. She
took dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, and baked the cakes.
Then she took the pan and set them out before him, but he refused to
eat. Amnon said, ‘Send out everyone from me.’ So everyone went out from
him.
Then Amnon said to Tamar, ‘Bring the food into the chamber, so that I
may eat from your hand.’ So Tamar took the cakes she had made, and
brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother.
But when she brought them near him to eat, he took hold of her, and said
to her, ‘Come, lie with me, my sister.’
She answered him, ‘No, my brother, do not force me; for such a thing is
not done in Israel; do not do anything so vile!
As for me, where could I carry my shame? And as for you, you would be as
one of the scoundrels in Israel. Now therefore, I beg you, speak to the
king; for he will not withhold me from you.’
But he would not listen to her; and being stronger than she was, he
forced her and lay with her.
</i><br />
<i> Then Amnon was seized with a very great loathing for her;
indeed, his loathing was even greater than the lust he had felt for her.
Amnon said to her, ‘Get out!’
But she said to him, ‘No, my brother; for this wrong in sending me away
is greater than the other that you did to me.’ But he would not listen
to her.
He called the young man who served him and said, ‘Put this woman out of
my presence, and bolt the door after her.’
(Now she was wearing a long robe with sleeves; for this is how the
virgin daughters of the king were clothed in earlier times.) So his
servant put her out, and bolted the door after her.
But Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore the long robe that she was
wearing; she put her hand on her head, and went away, crying aloud as
she went.
</i><br />
<i> Her brother Absalom said to her, ‘Has Amnon your brother been
with you? Be quiet for now, my sister; he is your brother; do not take
this to heart.’ So Tamar remained, a desolate woman, in her brother
Absalom’s house.
When King David heard of all these things, he became very angry, but he
would not punish his son Amnon, because he loved him, for he was his
firstborn.
But Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad; for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had raped his sister Tamar.
</i><br />
<i> After two full years Absalom had sheepshearers at Baal-hazor, which is near Ephraim, and Absalom invited all the king’s sons.
Absalom came to the king, and said, ‘Your servant has sheepshearers;
will the king and his servants please go with your servant?’
But the king said to Absalom, ‘No, my son, let us not all go, or else we
will be burdensome to you.’ He pressed him, but he would not go but
gave him his blessing.
Then Absalom said, ‘If not, please let my brother Amnon go with us.’ The king said to him, ‘Why should he go with you?’
But Absalom pressed him until he let Amnon and all the king’s sons go with him. Absalom made a feast like a king’s feast.
Then Absalom commanded his servants, ‘Watch when Amnon’s heart is merry
with wine, and when I say to you, “Strike Amnon”, then kill him. Do not
be afraid; have I not myself commanded you? Be courageous and valiant.’
So the servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then
all the king’s sons rose, and each mounted his mule and fled.
</i><br />
<i> While they were on the way, the report came to David that Absalom had killed all the king’s sons, and not one of them was left.
The king rose, tore his garments, and lay on the ground; and all his servants who were standing by tore their garments.
But Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, said, ‘Let not my lord
suppose that they have killed all the young men the king’s sons; Amnon
alone is dead. This has been determined by Absalom from the day Amnon raped his sister Tamar.
Now therefore, do not let my lord the king take it to heart, as if all the king’s sons were dead; for Amnon alone is dead.’
</i><br />
<i> But Absalom fled. When the young man who kept watch
looked up, he saw many people coming from the Horonaim road by the side
of the mountain.
Jonadab said to the king, ‘See, the king’s sons have come; as your
servant said, so it has come about.’
As soon as he had finished speaking, the king’s sons arrived, and raised
their voices and wept; and the king and all his servants also wept very
bitterly.
</i><br />
<i> But Absalom fled, and went to Talmai son of Ammihud, king of Geshur. David mourned for his son day after day.
Absalom, having fled to Geshur, stayed there for three years.
And the heart of the king went out, yearning for Absalom; for he was now consoled over the death of Amnon.
</i>Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-88685444041872667152013-04-14T17:00:00.004-07:002013-04-14T17:00:52.592-07:00Easter 3C<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A reflection on the readings for Easter 3C by the Rev. Dr. Sarah Rogers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
tend to be the sort of person who overanalyses things, I suppose that is why I
became a scientist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These days, I don’t
have the science to fall back on, so I often go home and pick apart a
conversation I’ve had, worry that perhaps something I have said has caused
offence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I particularly worry about
certain situations, perhaps the most stressful are funerals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I always want to make sure that the person
who has died is treated respectfully and given the send off they deserve
because we are all precious to God and we deserve the best.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also don’t want to cause the bereaved
family any unnecessary distress – grief is hard enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, no matter how much care I have
taken, I still often come home thinking I could have done something better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have learnt not to beat myself up over it
and not to dwell on the things that have gone wrong too much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, even though you may not think
things have gone that well, people tell you differently as they say ‘what a
lovely service’, or whatever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t
quite stop the worry..but, we are after all only human and we can only do our
best.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I always hope that I haven’t let
people down too badly and I’ve never heard that I have, so perhaps, it is not
all that bad..!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And
yet, we can never be too complacent, part of the human condition is that we
can, and often do, let people down beyond our imagining, and nothing prepares
us for that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When that happens, grim
realisation often creeps in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
nothing worse than knowing that we have let someone down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The distress can often cause us to go to the
extent of crossing the road to avoid the person we have offended…after all,
that is much easier than having to face them and admit our wrong-doing and say
sorry.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So,
from time to time we all let someone down to an extent we are uncomfortable
with, if it has happened to me, then I’m sure it has also happened to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether we have, or haven’t, I’m sure we have
all at least felt as though we have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is, I hope, our natural humility..!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have no greater example for that than the disciples of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judas Iscariot betrayed, Peter denied him not
once, but three times, the others ran away frightened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was only the women, and the disciple who
Jesus loved, whoever that may be, who stood steadfastly at the foot of the
cross and watched as he died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
also the women who were first at the empty tomb, they went there expecting to
find a stone that would need to be moved and a body to be anointed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead they found the stone rolled away and
empty grave-clothes….no body.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mary
Magdalene meets Jesus alone, she presumes he is the gardener at first, when she
realises the truth she runs off at his command to tell the disciples that he
has risen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The risen Christ appears to
his disciples more than once, behind closed doors, in the upper room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are locked away, frightened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he comes and stands among them and says
‘Peace be with you’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These men who ran
away, these men who couldn’t face the reality of their Lord and master being
crucified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus comes and stands in the
midst of them and says ‘Peace be with you’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I can’t imagine what they must have felt right then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were probably terrified and
horrified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had promised so
much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter had said ‘ I will lay down
my life for you.’ (John 13. 37), James & John had promised that they could
drink the same cup that Jesus drank (Mark 10: 39-40).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reality was very different from what they
expected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they had seen Jesus walking
along the street would they have crossed the road to avoid him? Quite
possibly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the reality is that they
are terrified of what would happen next, scared for their own lives because
they had known and followed Jesus, and so they stayed hidden behind closed
doors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite everything, Jesus returns
and stands among them and says ‘Peace be with you’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That to me sounds like ‘don’t worry, all is
forgiven’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus returns, forgiving as
always.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is the same as he was
before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus is constant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By
the time Jesus appears to his disciples on the beach one can’t help wondering
whether they are a little more comfortable with him again, gradually getting to
realise that it is okay that they have let him down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are not the first and they wont be the
last, since almost the beginning of time and for eternity God has to face day
in day out someone letting him down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
do that to our parents all the time, God forgives us and accepts us just as our
parents do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On
that beach in those days following the resurrection, Jesus greets his disciples
and cooks for them..after a hard nights fishing there can be nothing finer than
barbequed fish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His disciples have gone
back to something they know, their trade in order to deal with his death and
resurrection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have tried just
sitting around behind closed doors, but that hasn’t quite worked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now they are out-doors working again..!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter runs to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each time Jesus appears the disciples gain
confidence. and yet we hear that ‘Peter was hurt’ because Jesus asked him a
third time if he loved him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was Peter
hurt. or was he realising just how badly he had let Jesus down an d perhaps
realising that Jesus was far more loyal than he had been.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter denied Jesus three times and so to make
it right again, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him three times, gradually order
is restored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that is only
temporary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter made a mistake, he got
scared and he hid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Jesus warns him
that his future will be full of risk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
many ways he has been the ultimate let down, but there is plenty of time to
redeem himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter is left in no
doubt that his courtyard experience will be repeated and that he must ‘do
better next time’. He must be stronger, better than he was before, he has been
given a second chance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One
can’t help wondering what mercy would have been shown to Judas Iscariot had his
shame not driven him to take his own life, after all perhaps he showed more
loyalty to Jesus by fulfilling his command..we will never really know what went
through Judas’ mind that night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What we
can be sure of is that no matter what we have done, no matter how badly we have
let our Lord down we will always be forgiven.</span></div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-26995385356410056502013-04-07T12:22:00.001-07:002013-04-07T13:22:46.897-07:00Easter 2<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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A reflection on the readings for Easter 2:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>20:1-18, by The Rev. Margaret Rose</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The 2<sup>nd</sup> Sunday of Easter is the anniversary of my
ordination to the priesthood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This year
it will be 31 <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t often<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>remember the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>calendar date—It was
April 18,I think,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the liturgical date is </b>etched in
memory—not just because of the ordination, but more because of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Gospel, appointed for all three
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is of course, “doubting Thomas”
and seemed so apt for my own situation, on that day in in the years that
followed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, this is true for many of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to see the signs of the cross and the
resurrection, and no doubt over and over again in order to say with
Thomas,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“My Lord and my God”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
myself, the signs of resurrection have asserted themselves over and over again,
and not least <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>when it seemed that Good
Friday would be the end of the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just in those moments when I most needed it, Jesus, in some form or
another would appear in the metaphorical room of my life with the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>invitation to put my hand in his wounded side
assuring me of his presence as we walk together into new life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
</div>
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Like Thomas,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted
to know that God did not abandon “his” own <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>on the cross, that there was “proof” of God’s
love for this only son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
resurrection appearances after Easter we get that—in the upper room, in Jesus
coming to the disciples on the water, in his cooking fish on the beach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus’ words on the cross ,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>were indeed not his last.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The disciples and the evangelists in the gospels
tell the story of his return, the assurance that a loving God will be present
to the end of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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A recent reflection from a parish newsletter reiterated
this, noting that the greatest evidence for the resurrection<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was the transformation of the disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The newsletter quoted<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John
Stott who said , “It was the resurrection which transformed Peter’s fear into
courage and James’ doubt into faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
was the resurrection which changed Saul into Paul and from persecution to
preaching.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect he would continue
by asserting as well that it was the resurrection which turned Thomas’s doubt
into belief.<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All this is no doubt true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I felt comforted by this Gospel text myself, all those years ago and
even now, assured that in the moments of doubt and fear,God will come to me,
offering what I, what we, need to continue the journey of discipleship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But what about the women? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They needed no such transformative experiences
in order to believe! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary Magdalene,
Mary, Joanna , the others who may have been at the cross or the tomb <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>needed no such proof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
was no 3 time <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>denial and subsequent
affirmation of the identity of Jesus, there was simply action and attention. Go
and tell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they did!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of
course we don’t have much written record of their stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what we do have is rather one of
astonishment than<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>disbelief!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their transformations seemed to have already
happened as they traveled with Jesus along the way, witnessing the healing of
the woman with the flow of blood, calling another to stand straight after years
of living a bent over life, noting that he paid attention to that importunate
widow who would not stop asking for what she wanted, or to the woman who defied
him in declaring that even the dogs get the food under the table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their transformation began with Jesus and
continued before the horror of the crucifixion, during their vigil at the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>cross, as they went to anoint his body and
when they saw and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>believed when the tomb
was empty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
</div>
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Today I give thanks for Thomas, who expresses so much of
what we all need—to see and touch to believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But in this season as well, I give thanks for those women who continued
to be transformed by their life with Jesus <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in his death and in his resurrection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
</div>
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I am reminded of the hymn from <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Episcopal church hymnal:<br />
<br />
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Blessed is She who Believes:</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first one ever,
oh ever to know of the birth of Jesus </div>
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was the Maid Mary,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>was Mary the maid of Galilee<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>and blessed is she who believes.</div>
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The first one ever, oh, ever to know<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of Messiah,</div>
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Jesus when he said, “I am he,”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and blessed is she, who
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The first ones ever oh, ever to know of the rising of Jesus,</div>
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his glory to be,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>were Mary, Joanna,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and Magdalene, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and
blessed are they who see.</div>
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Margaret Rose </div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-79655813594615696642013-03-30T20:13:00.000-07:002013-03-30T20:13:59.136-07:00A Disciple for All Time<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";"> Part three of The Mary Passions: Mary Magdalene by Anne Wolf Fraley with Kate Hennessy-Keimig and Terri C. Pilarski</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">I had
not slept. Since leaving Golgotha I have been overwhelmed by despair. Whether
from gray skies and starless nights or the weight of grief pressed against my
heart, I do not know. But I did not sleep—my mind raced, struggling to grasp our
crushing loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was he truly gone, Jesus,
my friend?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">I was
there, crouched beside his mother as we watched the wind whip against the
bareness of his body, the force of which blew his hair across his face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could not turn my eyes from his. I did not
want the memory of his suffering to burn itself into my mind, so I looked only
at his eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I must tell you, his eyes
were extraordinary. They bore the pain of his injury, a tender, forgiving
dullness outshone by deep and abiding love. I do not know how such contradictory
expressions could be revealed at once, but I should not be surprised. He is no
ordinary man. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">I
remember that my hands were numb. Mary, his mother, and I clung tightly to one
another during those endless hours. She was drained of strength, stumbling several
times as she stood faithfully near her son. A merchant whose curiosity had led
him off the path as he left the city gates drew a cushion from his stores and
brought it to Mary to ease her plight. He stayed near us for a while, a witness
transformed by compassion whose heart began to break along with the rest of us.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">Jesus’
breathing became shallow, and he did not fight what he knew awaited him. He
raised his head a bit and looked at us. Upon his mother he looked long and with
deep devotion. I felt the tension slip from her being with a deep sigh, and
when I looked her face was drawn with comprehension and the tug of peace
suggested a smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My eyes shifted back
to his, and in the deepening darkness of them I saw the world gathered to
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did not smile, but the same
peace that touched his mother radiated from him. Our eyes locked in wordless
farewell, and with one last, penetrating gaze he entrusted his heart and wisdom
to me and released his last breath. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">Mary
sank against me, and I was grateful for the need to tend to her as the enormity
of our loss gripped my soul. I remember little else, for which I am glad. No
one should endure the agony of love being stolen from them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were swallowed by the deep darkness of
night, and there remained until the song of the birds alerted us to this
dawning day.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">We
gathered our oil and spices and ventured into the early morning light to go to
the tomb. We did not speak. The ritual of this loving obligation to the dead
was well known to us, and conversation flowed between us in the sorrowful
echoes of our footsteps.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">It
looked as it did when his body was laid to rest two days before. The entrance
to the tomb, small but easily accessible, was marked by the scars of its recent
hewing, jagged and raw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt oddly
comforted by its gaping darkness, as it reflected the state of my own
soul—jagged, raw and dark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it
was for this reason that I gathered the folds of my dress around me without
hesitation and ducked through the opening to confront the reality of my
lifeless beloved.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">The
others followed behind me, and our eyes adjusted to the darkness with growing
puzzlement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He is not here,” my voice
broke the silence after several moments. We looked at one another, fear
beginning to creep into our blood. I set the ointment down beside the lonely
shroud that had wrapped his body and made my way around the perimeter of the
tomb. It was as empty as I felt. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">Of a
sudden the tomb was filled with light, as though the sun had breached the
horizon and directed its rays to illuminate our devastated world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So vivid was the light that at first we did
not see the two men who stood before us in radiating brilliance. It was too
much for our heavy hearts to bear, and our knees gave way to our fear as we
fell to the ground, averting our gaze from this terrible wonder.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">“Do not
be afraid,” one of them spoke gently. </span><span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He
is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in
Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified,
and on the third day rise again.” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">My
thoughts reached deep into the mystery that was this man we all loved, Jesus,
whose teaching changed our hearts and thus, our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The experience of him, of what had become
known through him, began to take hold and banish the fear that had begun to
settle in my heart. I had no answers, but neither was I afraid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He is not here,” I heard my voice again,
this time with a hint of confidence. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Could it be? Was it possible that the promise
of his triumph was more than a metaphor, that it was, in fact, the miracle we
were blessed to witness here in this tomb? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">“He has
risen?” queried one of my companions behind me, and another shouted with
excitement, “He is risen!” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">In one
heartbeat we turned to find the men gone. The light, however, continued to fill
the emptiness, permeating our hearts with the fullness of love. Then grief gave
way to awareness, and in that shattering awareness we began to leap with a joy
that we had never known.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">Before
we knew it we were rushing from the tomb toward the village, and before long we
came upon the place where the disciples had gathered. Peter, hearing our
ruckus, got up and began to move toward us. When he saw who he were he stopped,
puzzled by our exuberance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One by one
the others got up and moved toward us, and by the time we reached them they
were drawn together in a cluster of confusion and concern. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">Peter
grasped my arms in his hands. “What is it?” he demanded, fearing, I think, that
our mourning had given way to delirium. We began to talk all at once, sharing
the gleeful news of our Lord’s rising. The significance of our words began to
sink in, but they were backing up and turning away, dismissing our claims as
fantasy and wishful thinking. Only Peter continued to listen, but doubt, too,
clouded his eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">At last
we fell into silence, and Peter looked at each of us, furrows of weariness and
the weight of sin etched across his forehead and his mouth drawn down. “Go
home,” he said at last. “You are tired. We are all tired. We will talk soon.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">In
stunned silence we turned away and began our walk to the place where we lodged.
I turned once to look back, and saw Peter begin to move in the direction from
which we had come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He picked up his
pace, and before he disappeared from view I thought I saw him begin to run. Our
heads were swimming, our hearts were bursting, and in a daze we returned to the
city while the miracle of the morning began to take hold and fill us with hope
and expectation.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">That
evening Peter came to see us, bringing with him the oil and spices we had
abandoned at the tomb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew when I saw
him enter the doorway that he had seen and believed. His face was no longer
ravaged by the bitterness of the last few days, but was illuminated by the
light of joy and renewal. I took the jars from him and wrapped my arms around
him, and in that moment we felt buoyed by the love that been bequeathed to us
and would now sustain us. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">We
talked long into the night until the full impact of all we had witnessed and
come to understand was within our reach. We then chose to yield to the fatigue
that we had pushed away, and Peter took his leave as I sought out my bed.
Outside the door, stars hidden from my view the previous two nights seemed to
sparkle with a new brightness, and though my heart still ached with loss, peace
coursed through my veins like a soothing tonic. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">He was
risen. The world might appear the same, but in each breath I took I would draw
in the power of love as I served God’s people with compassion and mercy. There
was joyful news to share about the God of our people, and as the knowledge of
that love unfolded in the days to come, lives would be healed and restored,
love would bind wounds and forgiveness would open hearts to reconciliation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our Lord had work yet to do, and we would be
part of it. Amazing, indeed.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif";">The Mary Passions were conceived by Terri C. Pilarski and written with Kate Hennessy-Keimig and Anne Wolf Fraley. These passion narratives reimagine the Gospel stories of Jesus' last days through the eyes of three women - his mother, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdalene. </span></div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-38384427647637019772013-03-28T09:54:00.000-07:002013-04-10T09:55:05.854-07:00Wash, Pray, Love: a reflection for Maundy Thursday, The Mary Passions<i>A reflection for Maundy Thursday, reimaging the Gospel stories of the
woman who anointed Jesus, in John she is named as Mary of Bethany, the
other Gospels do not name her. </i><br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
I know what you think of me, even all these years later.
Some of you know me as Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus. Yes.
Jesus was our friend, my friend - and I was his friend. He knew me, the real
me. </div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Others do not remember my name and tell my story as if I
were a nobody, some unnamed woman. One, a person named Luke, even said that I
was sinful. </div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whatever.</div>
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</div>
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He never knew the real me, not like Jesus did.</div>
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</div>
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It’s true that I broke all the rules for women in my day. I
sat at Jesus’ feet while he taught us about the love of God and how God speaks
to us through scripture and through other people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even my sister Martha grew impatient with my
love of learning. But Jesus never did. He encouraged it!</div>
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</div>
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It’s true, I had to make a living someway. And as a woman my
options were limited. But in truth I would have done this work anyway. It is
what God called me to do.</div>
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</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I care for people
that others would never touch. </div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I help the poor women, even the Gentile women, give birth. I
am a midwife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I help the dying and
comfort them in their final hours with tinctures of herbs to soothe their
anxiety and bring them peace. </div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Jesus, I recognized a kindred soul, another who sees
deeply into the pain of this world and yearns to heal it with God’s love. Like
Jesus, I seek to bring God’s healing love to women frightened by the pain of
childbirth. I soothe babies entering this world,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>care for children as they die too young,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tend to the old taking their last breath. I
bring comfort and love, not with my words, for I am a woman of few words, but
with what I do. I listen, I watch, I care.</div>
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</div>
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That night, that last night, I will never forget.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was nearby and heard the noise from the dinner party. As a
woman, I was not allowed in the room, unless I was willing to serve the food or
dance for them, or give them my body. </div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But my job was neither to feed nor entertain the men.</div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, no! I did not want to go in there. I knew it would cause
a stir. And I was tired. It had already been a long day of tending to a woman
giving birth. But, I had with me my alabaster jar of nard. The fragrance always
soothes those who are agitated and scared, as surely Jesus was.</div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I knew that Jesus was in the room with them, eating and
drinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew that things were going
badly for him. I knew, I just knew, that he knew this too. The Roman soldiers
were watching and following him. The chief priests kept a careful eye on him as
well. Even his own friends were meeting secretly with government guards and
spies. I personally saw Judas meet with a few of them, money exchanged hands.
Judas was not to be trusted. I know him and his family, and his greed.</div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I knew that the end was coming and I was helpless to stop
it. I’ve seen it happen before. First the tension mounts as the Roman soldiers
apply pressure and then the chief priests decide it’s better for one man to die
than it is for the entire temple to be destroyed. And so it goes. Someone is
given over to be crucified; one person must die so the rest of us can live in
peace—their idea of peace. The chief priests and scribes will do this. And
Pilate and Herod and all the others will be placated for a time. I know this
because I have been in all of their homes. I have cared for their family
members. I am the one called whenever there is a need to care for the
suffering. As a caretaker, I am trained to use my senses. I observe everything
around me. I see and feel and hear things that are not intended for others to
know. And so, of this, of their intent to cause Jesus’ death, I am certain. </div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And my heart, filled with this awareness, was breaking. </div>
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</div>
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Jesus - who showed compassion to the most vulnerable. Jesus
who worked side by side with me, and helped me remember that the work I do is
God’s work, even if the people despised me for it. It was Jesus who pointed out
our flaws and our idolatry and yet, loved us even more. Jesus - who brought my
brother Lazarus back to life. Jesus - who loves everyone. Even Peter, and yes,
even Judas. </div>
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</div>
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I could do nothing to stop it. </div>
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</div>
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Money had exchanged hands. The deal was done. </div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’d warned Jesus, and he knew it too. But not even he would change the
course of these events. He would allow them to unfold as they
must. </div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There was, however, one thing I could do. As one who cares
for the dying I could go into that room and anoint him, who was to die, with my
oil - my jar of nard. </div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My legs felt heavy, and although my walk was purposeful, it
felt as though I were walking through water. Those few steps to Jesus, my
beloved friend, took a lifetime to walk.</div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I collapsed on the floor before him and took those weary
feet into my hands. Dusty and calloused – marked from three long years of
walking – I gently held those feet in my warm hands and kissed them. I took one
foot and rubbed it clean, massaging the nard into the tired muscles and gnarled
toes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then I cared for the other
foot. Tears ran down my face. Tears fell on his feet. I could not stop myself!
I bathed him in tears and nard. </div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Suddenly, as I was finishing anointing him, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I realized I had no towel to wipe his feet,
soaked as they were, in my tears. </div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My hair would have to do. I uncoiled it from my head and let
its length fall to the floor. And I used my hair to wipe his feet and dry my
tears.</div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I knew the others were talking. I could hear the gasps and
the guffaws, the men chiding me and calling me names. I heard Judas (that
fool!), suggest that MY nard should have been sold and the money given to the
poor. Judas, who would have kept the money for himself, had the nerve to
suggest that I was being greedy. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Later,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would stand
by as Jesus washed the feet of his friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just a few short hours before it
was all to end and here he was loving them, the very ones who would turn their
backs on him and deny they knew him. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But for now, I was going to give him all the love I had in
my heart. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Quietly Jesus spoke. And I knew that he understood
everything. He knew how deep my love for him was. He knew how deep my love for
God is, a depth of love that mirrored his own. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And that was enough. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The powerful fragrance of that nard lingered for days. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I
would smell it wafting up from my hands as I prayed, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and from his body as they
beat him. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It lingered still when we took him down off the cross and prepared
his body for burial. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fragrance of love overpowered the violence of death.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, all these years later, I've come to realize that love
trumps everything. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even death.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>The Mary Passions are a three part series written by Terri C.
Pilarski, Kate Hennessy-Keimig, and Anne Wolf Fraley. The Mary Passions
reflect the last days of Jesus' life and the resurrection through an
imaginary perspective of three women: Mary, the mother; Mary of Bethany;
and Mary Magdalene. Part one, the Mother is posted just before this
post, and was proclaimed on Palm Sunday. Mary Magdalene will be posted
for Saturday night, and proclaimed at the Great Vigil of Easter. If you
are interested in using The Mary Passions please email me for permission
via this blog.</i></div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-45515067085584723162013-03-23T16:06:00.001-07:002013-03-23T16:06:21.819-07:00The Mary Passions, part one, The Mother<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Reflections
from Mary, the Mother of Jesus on the passion, adapted from the Gospel of Luke (Luke 22:14-23:56)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even now, I can’t help
but remember those days. At the time I thought I would never forget one single,
horrible moment, one thought, one feeling, one word. But you know, it’s
true, time does (mercifully) take the sharp razor’s edge from unbearable pain,
makes it tolerable. But there are things I remember, moments that are burnt
into my mind and my heart. Mostly things about him, my beloved son, the
child that came to his father and me as a gift from God and who through-out his
life never did stop both mystifying and teaching me. But my feelings during
those awful hours as he suffered and finally died? Yes, I still remember and
can call it all back in a heartbeat….</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My sense of unease had
been building through those last few weeks; mother’s intuition sensed that all
was not well. He had pushed the establishment, powerful people, too far. I
wanted to protect him, to tell him to stop…but to stop what? Stop doing what he
seemed so clearly called to do? Stop being who he was? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We gathered that last
night at the Mount of Olives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus
asked us to stay awake while he prayed. He seemed worried, sad, as he
prayed, and I prayed for his safety as I watched. Finally, after a long time,
he went to find his friends, and of course, they were sleeping. (My feelings flared
then!) I was angry and wondered how they could be so thoughtless. But Jesus was
gentle with them, as he often was when they would have tried my patience beyond
endurance. He simply asked them why they slept, and asked them to pray for
their OWN
deliverance. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But their sleeping was
nothing to what happened next; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a crowd
of people suddenly appeared from the darkness, and Judas, Jesus’ friend, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>just walked up to my son and kissed him. “What
on earth?” I wondered, but Jesus looked right into his eyes and said, “Judas, is
it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?” Well, total chaos broke
out .Peter was flailing around with his sword, and I have to admit, I found
myself wishing more of us had weapons. In the confusion a slave’s ear was cut off!
But Jesus told them to stop, and they did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He healed the slave’s ear. My heart was breaking; I was so proud of him,
and so terrified. He stood bravely in front of them all and asked them why they
came after him as though he were a dangerous criminal? He reminded
them he had been with them every day, and they hadn’t arrested him. Then
he said something that stopped my tears, nearly stopped my heart:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But this is your hour, the hour of the power
of darkness!”</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">When
they took him to the high priest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I stayed
as close as I could. (My eyes caught his), sending him love, courage. But Peter
and his other friends kept their distance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I heard Peter say to three different people that he wasn’t with Jesus, didn’t
even know who he was. That made me so angry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The last time he said it, Jesus turned and caught Peter’s eye, and something
passed between them in that moment, that made Peter run away in tears. Peter
told me later that Jesus had predicted he would betray him. “<span style="layout-grid-mode: line;">He told me I</span> would deny I ever knew him,
not once but three times,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and I simply
would not believe that I could ever do that to him,” he said, “But the Teacher
knew my heart, just as he always did.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">My
next memory is of them making fun of Jesus and beating him. It is a mother’s
nightmare to see her son being treated this way. I felt such rage, such
helpless fury as I watched them blindfold him; call him names, even spit on him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t bear to stand there and watch, but
I couldn’t bear to leave either. So I stayed, weeping silently as the other
women held me, grieved with me. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I
did not sleep that night, and in the morning, they took him to the Chief Priest
and the questions started. So many questions! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Jesus was calm as he answered, turning
their own words back on them, refusing to be trapped, yet never, ever denying
his truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even as I was so fiercely
proud of him, I wanted to hush him; get him away from there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the Chief priest asked, “Are you the
Son of God?” and my son said to him, “You say that I am,” I knew then, in that
moment, that things had turned some awful corner. I knew it, even before I
heard the Chief priest confirm it, even before they decided to take him to Pilate
(so they could make him part of this hateful process, too, before we could take
the next step on this awful journey). </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Pilate
had more questions! He asked my son if he was the ‘king of the Jews’ and he
answered, “You say so,” which I thought was a good answer. Then Pilate said
something that gave me a glimmer of hope, “I find no basis for an accusation
against this man.” I breathed then for the first time in a long while. I looked
around me at my neighbors and friends, expecting that they too would see that
Jesus was innocent and that this ridiculous charade could be done with! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they avoided my eyes. They were so vicious,
so self-righteous, and kept insisting that Pilate take action against Jesus. I
felt so confused, so desperate. How had this happened? These were the people I
thought I knew, that knew me, knew us, but not now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now they were a mindless crowd, angry, out
for blood. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After what seemed like
forever, Pilate again said he could find nothing Jesus had done that deserved
death, so he was going to have my son flogged and released. I breathed again
then. While of course I did not want to see my son hurt any more, to see him in
pain, if it would take a flogging to end this, I knew he could endure that.
Then Mary and I could take him home, tend his wounds; we would have a meal, it
would be ok, maybe. (I could see it all there for just a moment.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">But
then the raging noise of the crowd broke through my thoughts. Pilate’s words
had only upset them even more. Someone shouted out for another prisoner to be
released, not my son, and the crowd roared its approval. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when Pilate asked them what he should do
with Jesus, the next words I heard were beyond those of my worst
nightmare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This crowd, these <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">animals</i> were screaming <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(she sobs)</i> “Crucify him, crucify him!” </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I
tried to breathe. I tried to reason with those standing nearest to me, but I
don’t think they even heard me. And in the end, they prevailed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pilate released the murderer, and my son was
sentenced to the (ugliest, lowest) most horrible death imaginable-death by
crucifixion</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I
remember the crowd that followed him up that hill; a lot of them just
onlookers, gawkers, but some were there who really cared, like my friend,
Simon, who helped him carry that hideous cross, and our women friends who began
wailing and beating their breasts in love and mourning, and never let up the
whole way there. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">That
walk, every step, seemed to go on forever, and yet we arrived in a heartbeat,
at that place called The Skull, where it was to end. I watched it all, his pain,
his agony, the brutality of that death. I held his eyes in mine and never
looked away. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to admit, his heart
was so much more forgiving than mine towards the soldiers who cast lots to
divide up his clothing, to the ones who scoffed and taunted/mocked him. Even
the criminals hanging alongside him could not just let him be! One of them kept
calling out, “Are you not the Messiah?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Save yourself and us!” The other one finally shouted for him to “Shut
up! They were getting what they deserved, but Jesus had done nothing wrong.” Then
he said something I will never forget, “Jesus, remember me when you come into
your kingdom.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">My
feelings were a torrent of love and grief for my son, anger and bewilderment. How
has it come to this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My child, my loved
one, born of the Spirit, is dying on a hot dusty hill between two criminals. Despair
flooded through me right then. It all seemed so pointless. I wanted to lash out
with all the hate and pain in my heart. And then I heard him praying to his Abba
Father, praying for the men who were killing him, “Father, forgive them; for
they do not know what they are doing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My child, not just my beloved, but God’s too….in this awful death, he
was still giving life.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Noon
finally came on that endless, endless day and I continued to keep vigil at the
foot of that torturous cross. It was very strange; it got dark suddenly, right
in the middle of the day, the sun's light dying as he was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, finally, after hearing nothing for a
long while I heard his voice, ringing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>loud and clear one last time, “Father-God, into your hands I commend my
spirit.” I looked up, desperate to look into his eyes one last time, fighting off
my despair, to give him the last ounce of love within me. And then, he breathed
his last. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I
don’t remember a lot that happened after that. I know there was a centurion
there, who saw it all; he praised God and said, “Certainly this man was
innocent.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I remember Joseph went to
Pilate and was given permission to collect the body. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was so relieved that we could take him from
there before the carrion came.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
Joseph, the women and I gently removed the broken body of the man I bore and
raised, from the nails and wood of that horrible cross. We rubbed his skin with
ointments, smoothed his hair, wrapped him in cloth with burial spices, placed
him gently in the new tomb, and left him there where no one had been buried
before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Funny
how little details remain, after all the blurring of time. I remember, as we
finished the Sabbath was just beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So, all the Sabbath day we rested, but there was no rest from my broken
heart and my grief.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> Jesus, my son, was dead. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>This
reflection is part one of a three part series titled The Mary Passions.
The Mary Passions take the biblical text for the Passion of Christ, the
anointing of Jesus' feet, and the resurrection and reimagine them
through the lens of Mary, the mother of Jesus (Palm Sunday); Mary of
Bethany (Maundy Thursday); and Mary Magdalene (Easter). </i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>These
reflections were inspired by The Rev. Terri C. Pilarski, and written in
collaboration with The Rev. Dr. Kate Hennessy-Keimig (Palm Sunday
reflection) and The Rev. Anne Wolf Fraley (Easter morning reflection).
Terri Pilarski wrote the Maundy Thursday reflection. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>The Rev. Dr. Kate Hennessy-Keimig is a priest in the Diocese of Minnesota who works bi-vocationally as a psychotherapist.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>The Rev. Anne Wolf Fraley is a priest in the Diocese of Tennessee.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>The Rev. Terri C. Pilarski is a priest in the Diocese of Michigan and the Rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Dearborn, MI.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Carolyn Blackmore offered the reflection at Christ Church at the 10am service on Sunday, March 24, 2013. </i></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-8161669754427249182013-03-16T13:43:00.002-07:002013-03-16T13:49:07.590-07:00A Woman's Passion, part two of a triology on the various Mary's in the life of Jesus<i>This reflection, based loosely on the Gospel of John for Lent 5C blends Mary of Bethany with some of the characteristics of the unnamed woman who anointed Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. It is intended to offer a glimpse into her interior life and how she may have understood herself and her actions. Much of what this describes her as doing, midwifing and tending to the dying, is fanciful imagination on my part, giving her work that may have been common for a woman in that day and time, work which also might have determined her to be unclean without having to be the "prostitute" some like to assume is the sin of the woman in Luke's Gospel. </i><br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know what you think
of me, even all these years later. For some I am portrayed as an inappropriate
woman, unclean, unworthy. People think this of me because I tend to people that
others would never touch. I help the poor women, even the Gentile women, give
birth. I am a midwife and for that I am considered unclean. I help the dying
and comfort them in their final hours with tinctures of herbs to soothe their
anxiety and bring them peace. And because I tend to the beginning of life and
the end of life I am considered unclean, unworthy. Some have said I am
prostitute, but that is not true. If I am considered unclean because I care for
those most in need, then so be it. I don’t care what they think of me.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others remember me by
my name, Mary. Yes. Jesus was my friend and I was his friend. He knew me, the
real me. In Jesus I recognize a kindred soul, another who sees deeply into the
pain of this world and yearns to heal it with God’s love. Like Jesus I seek to
bring God’s healing love into the frightened lives of women in pain, of babies
entering this world, of children dying, of the old taking their last breath. I
bring comfort and love, not in my words but in what I do. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That night, that last night, I will never forget. I was
nearby and heard the noise from the dinner party. As a woman I was not allowed
in the room, unless I was willing to serve the food or dance for them. But my
job was not to feed the men nor entertain them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am a healer. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let me tell you, I did not want to go in there. I knew it
would cause a stir. And I was tired. It had already been a long day of tending
to a woman giving birth. I had with me my alabaster jar of nard. The fragrance
always soothes those who are agitated and scared.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew that Jesus was
in the room with them, eating and drinking. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew that things were going badly for him. I
knew, I just knew, that he knew this too. The Roman soldiers were watching and
following him. The chief priests kept a careful eye on him as well. Even his
own friends were meeting secretly with government guards and spies. I
personally saw Judas meet with a few of them, money exchanged hands. Judas was
not to be trusted. I know him and his family, and his greed.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I know that the end is coming and I am helpless to stop it.
I’ve seen it happen before. The tension mounts as the Roman soldiers apply
pressure and the chief priests decide it’s better for one man to die than it is
for the entire temple to be destroyed. And so it is. Someone is given over to
be crucified; one person must die so the rest of us can live in peace—their
idea of peace. The chief priests and scribes will do this. And Pilate and Herod
and all the others will be placated for a time. I know this because I have been
in all of their homes. I have cared for their family members. I am the one
called for whenever there is a need to care for the suffering. As a caretaker I
am trained to use my senses. I observe everything around me. I see and feel and
hear things that are not intended for others to know. And so, of this, of their
intent to cause Jesus’ death, I am certain. </div>
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<br /></div>
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And my heart, filled with this awareness, is breaking. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Jesus -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who showed
compassion to the most vulnerable. Jesus who worked side by side with me, and
helped me re-member that the work I do is God’s work, even if the people despised
me for it. It was Jesus who pointed out our flaws and our idolatry and yet,
loved us even more. Jesus <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- who brought
my brother Lazarus back to life. Jesus - who loves everyone. Yes, he was the
one they would reject.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I could do nothing to stop it. Money had exchanged hands.
The deal was done. I’d warned Jesus, and he knew it too. But not even he would
not change the course of these events. He would allow them to unfold as they
must. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There was, however, one thing I could do. As one who cares
for the dying I could go in to that room and anoint him, who was to die, with
my oil - my jar of nard. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My legs felt heavy, and although my walk was purposeful, it
felt as though I were walking through water. Those few steps to Jesus, my beloved
friend, took a life time to walk.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I collapsed on the
floor before him and took those weary feet into my hands. Dusty and calloused –
marked from three long years of walking – I gently held those feet in my warm
hands and kissed them. I took one foot and rubbed it clean, massaging the nard
into the tired muscles. And then I cared for the other foot. Tears ran down my
face. Tears fell on his feet. I could not stop myself! I bathed him in tears
and nard. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then I realized I had no towel to wipe his feet, soaked
as they were, in my tears. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My hair would have to do. I uncoiled it from my head and let
its length fall to the floor. And I used my hair to wipe his feet and dry my
tears. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know the others were talking. I could hear the gasps and
the guffaws, the men chiding me and calling me names. I heard Judas, (that
fool!), suggest that MY nard should have been sold and the money given to the
poor. Judas, who would have kept the money for himself, had the nerve to
suggest that I was being greedy. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Quietly Jesus spoke. And I knew that he understood
everything. He knew how deep my love for him was. He knew how deep my love for
God is, a depth of love that mirrored his own. And that was enough. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was
enough to know that love trumps everything. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even death. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<i><br /></i>Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-6854489271846760362013-03-02T10:44:00.000-08:002013-03-02T10:44:20.423-08:00Boldly Sin, Boldly Change.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<i>A reflection on the readings for Lent 3C: Isaiah 55:1-9by the Rev. Karla J. Miller</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
This winter and spring, my congregation is exploring the ideas in
progressive Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We did a
book study on Marcus Borg’s book, “Speaking Christian”, and we are using the
book to guide our lenten conversations around God, Jesus, Forgiveness, Mercy,
and Salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I am learning from
my congregation is that although they think progressively, act progressively,
and love progressively,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they don’t
always have the theological language with which to speak progressively.
Especially about God. </div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
So, we are working on that. </div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
Most of my people understand God as Love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an immanent, transcendent reality that is
present in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ground of all
being, in who we live and move and have our existence (Acts 17:28).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea of God out there, separate from the
universe, controlling, authority-figure that is often the God that atheists
argue against its existence, is not the one they know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the God they see splashed across the
evening news when a religious expert (usually from a radically conservative
perspective) is called upon to speak for God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
I think about this God in the context of the gospel lesson this
week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You see, I think that Jesus was
trying to point out to the “some present” is that their idea of sin and the
Divine was humanly skewed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus was
offering a message of real change--you don’t have to “think it in the way you
were taught”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>without questioning; you
don’t have to “do it the way it always has been done”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>because guess what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The old paradigm doesn’t fit anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is Love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God doesn’t give a rat’s ass about these little picky “sins” as you name
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God cares that God’s message of
Love is offered to all. </div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
Can’t you<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>just see Jesus
saying to us, the Church, “Just look at your empty pews!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The old paradigm is clearly not working, so
why keep trying to tweak it and patch it and dress it up and dress it
down?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unless there is true, bold change
at the very heart of it all, it’s not going to work.” </div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
We all know change is incremental in institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, while within our walls on Sunday
mornings, where our comfortable worship and hymns cling to words that address<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our Father who are in heaven,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a heaven that is out there, and a hell that
is down there--there is a dying, crying world outside--OUTSIDE--on our
streets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are children in the wet,
bitter cold of Syria who have no shoes--literally, walking barefoot or in
flip-slops in icy mud, where human waste ferments because of lack of
sanitation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is the twelve year boy
in your catechism class who is already diagnosed with anorexia, because it’s
the only control he has in his life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
then there are those polar bears, the mama and cub, stranded on an ice floe,
surrounded by water, because of global warming, and they will simply perish,
because there is no way out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
Don’t they need a God who is with them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t they need to know that the pain, the
suffering isn’t their fault? Don’t they need you,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>us, the Church--to be healing love, rather
than what it is perceived to be? </div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
Our gospel lesson calls us to Repent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Change. Now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not in incrementally
so that we are comfortable and don’t feel the uneasiness of it all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are in a time in Christianity, where we
need to embrace that fact that we are indeed in living in a post Christian
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where we are called to make Bold
Decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where we are called to
prophesy, “God is GOOD!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God believes in
you!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and where we act, outside of our
walls, because we believe that God cares--about the polar bears and freezing
children and lost teenagers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
The good news in this text, though, is that Jesus recognizes that
a little time is needed, though, for change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He gives the fig tree a year to bear fruit--and if it doesn’t--then it
might as well be cut down--to make room for a tree that does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We, the Church, have a little time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the pews aren’t full on Sundays--then
maybe we need to take the pews to the people, to the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have some time to do that, and hopefully,
as we boldly lead, the liberating, nourishing Ground of All Being Love will
bring new life in our world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-10543570809695119562013-02-24T11:13:00.000-08:002013-02-24T14:43:22.601-08:00Lent 2C<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheUgwVHs5eVKb-_XZM2691-c1ibhVV3UqCo1AEUW57wptES8SB0lmGKIqgTGa38YX7YFDIAQGMw80WaqmFH6oQP5Aj1ZBdv5GNKazhqCFhj779PzueHe83P00j2yyJaR1q8_2iSIxjMgQh/s1600/St+John+icon+Anne%27s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheUgwVHs5eVKb-_XZM2691-c1ibhVV3UqCo1AEUW57wptES8SB0lmGKIqgTGa38YX7YFDIAQGMw80WaqmFH6oQP5Aj1ZBdv5GNKazhqCFhj779PzueHe83P00j2yyJaR1q8_2iSIxjMgQh/s320/St+John+icon+Anne%27s.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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A reflection on Psalm 27 by the Rev. Anne Fraley.</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Psalm 27:1, 14 The
LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the
stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? … Wait for the LORD; be
strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!</i></div>
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This past week I took part in an icon-writing workshop.
This was the fourth time I have had the privilege of serving as chaplain in
this annual offering by our local cathedral’s program for the arts. As in
previous years it afforded me an opportunity to release the concerns of daily
life to be immersed in communal silence, and in the same way that the image of
my saint emerged on my canvas, some of my own soul came into focus in a new
way. </div>
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The icon I wrote was St. John the Theologian dictating to
St. Prochorus, an obscure biblical figure who went on to be a bishop and martyr
in the early years of the Church’s development. The icon is full of details,
from the position of John’s turned head to receive divine wisdom, to the
elevated position of the two men in front of a cave of darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The mind and heart can swim with
contemplation while painting layers of color, and as the image came into relief
with the application of lightening layers, my soul was drawn more deeply into
the ancient truths the icon is meant to reveal.</div>
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I went into this week of creative devotion fresh on the
heels of reading columnist Susan Campbell’s memoir <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dating Jesus</i>, subtitled “A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and
the American Girl.” A self-described recovering fundamentalist, Campbell shares
the story of how she wrestled with and extracted herself from a Christian
tradition that extolled her adored Jesus while subjugating women through a
literal interpretation of holy writ. Her narrative is familiar to us, and
though her journey toward spiritual maturity bears little resemblance to mine,
her pain reverberated in the corridors of my own experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I faced a blank canvas ready to be
immersed in this ancient spiritual practice, Campbell’s courage to depart from
the tradition that shaped her life so firmly and fiercely inspired me to take a
modest risk with my icon. Unhappy with the patriarchal tradition of men
portrayed as sole guardians of the Word, my Prochorus would be depicted as
feminine, Prochora. </div>
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This was far from a scandalous act, but it was a significant
choice for me as a woman and a preacher of the Word to add curling locks to the
saint of old. It wasn’t just about adding a feminine image to a genre dominated
by men (with the exception of the prevalence of the Holy Mother). It was a
declaration that in spite of appearances and experiences to the contrary, for
centuries women have been entrusted with receiving and sharing God’s wisdom and
the incarnate revelation of Christ. In this icon in particular—with John’s face
turned away from his scribe—the sacred trust implicit in the theologian’s
posture conveys an equality of the sexes that underscores a truth that many of
us have received over the years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Such a declaration is not meant to deny or diminish the
oppression of women during these same years, especially by a Church that
professes to proclaim the Good News that ought to have liberated our sex and
rejoiced in its equal participation. It is, instead, intended to acknowledge
what has been hidden by the darkness of patriarchy. In the same way that icons
are painted beginning with the darkest layers, revealing its details with
successive of layers of increasing light, so is the Church in many quarters now
in a place where the barriers of gender are being shed. It is a journey far
from concluded, but the voices of women now heard from pulpits and shared in
decision-making circles have reached a tipping point of no return.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the psalmist proclaims, with the Lord as
light and salvation, there is no place for fear. Strength and courage are
endowed to us through whatever waiting we endure.</div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-6908829682389062872013-02-10T14:34:00.001-08:002013-02-10T14:34:42.543-08:00Feast of the Transfiguration<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';"><span style="font-size: small;">A reflection Luke 9:28-43 by the Rev. Crystal Karr</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">28</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.</span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">29</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling
white.</span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">30</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.</span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">31</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.</span><sup><span>32</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">Now
Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they
had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.</span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">33</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">Just
as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for
us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses,
and one for Elijah” —not knowing what he said.</span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">34</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud.</span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">35</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”</span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">36</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">When
the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and
in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.</span></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">37</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him.</span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">38</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child.</span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">39</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">Suddenly
a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until
he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him.</span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">40</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”</span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">41</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">Jesus
answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I
be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.”</span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">42</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC';">While
he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But
Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to
his father.</span></span>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I adore Peter, probably because I can relate.<span> </span>Here
Peter is confronted with an amazing site—the man he’s been following
transformed into a vision of whiteness while talking with two other
men—Elijah and Moses.<span> </span>Still rubbing the sleep from his
eyes, unable to take in all that he is witnessing, rather than taking a
moment to process what is going on (not that he could have anyway) he
blurts out the first thing that comes into his head—to make a lasting
marker on the mountain for each of the great men before him.<span> </span>Then comes God’s voice, “Just stop!<span> </span>Shut up and listen!”<span> </span>I can imagine Peter, stumbling and embarrassed.<span> </span>He wants desperately to please Jesus, to be the one who gets it, who understands…even when he clearly does not.</span></span>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This week I subbed as the librarian at an elementary school.<span> </span>As
I envisioned Peter on the mountain top with Jesus, Elijah, Moses, and
the other disciples I was reminded of one of the books, </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Dinosaurs-Clothes-Diane-Goode/dp/0590383604" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">The Dinosaur’s New Clothes</span></a></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span> </span>It’s
a new take on the old story of The Emperor’s New Clothes—two swindler’s
come to town proclaiming a glorious robe made of cloth only intelligent
and “dinosaurs fit for their jobs” can see.<span> </span>Everyone
utterly afraid that their foolishness, stupidity, or unfitness for their
job would show through they lied about seeing the robe.<span> </span>Peter on the other hand, sees the glory of Jesus blazing before him.<span> </span>He wants everyone to know that he sees it, that he understands it.<span> </span>He wants to make it known.<span> </span>I imagine he wants to tell the story so that everyone knows that he was there, he put up the dwellings, he saw it first.</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How much trouble in this world is caused by wanting to prove ourselves worthy?<span> </span>Prove ourselves intelligent?<span> </span>Prove ourselves fit for our jobs?<span> </span>Too
often in moments in which we need time and space to breathe, to take in
the experience, to simply sit and process so what we witness can make a
lasting significance in our heart and lives, we jump to bragging about
being their first, how to fix it without thinking first, or we go along
with the crowd so not to be considered stupid and unintelligent.<span> </span></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Too often in our rush to prove ourselves we, like Peter, miss what is going on around us.<span> </span>We miss the glimpses of God in action, in the act of transforming our world.<span> </span>We need time to process just as we need time to act.<span> </span>The more we take time to sit and listen and be with God, the more relevant and transformative our actions will become.<span> </span>We
live in a knee-jerk world in which stopping to listen to the voice of
God, stopping to process and understand those we are dealing with are
practically dead arts in many circles.<span> </span>In order to transform our world we must leave our needs to be right, to be first, and to prove ourselves aside so
that we may go deeper listening to God, listening to the “others” and then responding with relevant and transformative action.<span> </span></span></span>Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-7679212272449210212013-01-12T12:00:00.003-08:002013-01-12T12:00:30.363-08:00Baptism of Jesus<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> A reflection on the readings for the Baptism of Jesus: </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Luke
3:15-17, 21-<span style="font-size: small;">22</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> by the Rev. Terri C. Pilarski</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Our
reading this morning conveys a key theme in the Gospel of Luke – prayer. Mary
Oliver, one of my favorite poets, helps us understand how to pray</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
doesn't have to be</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the
blue iris, it could be</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">weeds
in a vacant lot, or a few</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">small
stones; just</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">pay
attention, then patch</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">a
few words together and don't try</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">to
make them elaborate, this isn't</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">a
contest but the doorway</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">into
thanks, and a silence in which</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">another
voice may speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Mary Oliver ~ Thirst)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Oliver
reminds us to keep it simple, patch a few words together, don’t try to be too
elaborate, give thanks and let there be some silence so God can speak too. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Jesus,
after his baptism went off to pray, something Jesus does a lot of in the Gospel
of Luke. Prayer is central to who Jesus is and how he lives out his ministry.
Prayer is central to our faith life too and how we are invited to live out our
various ministries.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Bible Jesus gives us a simple prayer to
pray, we call it The Lord’s Prayer. There are two versions of it in our Book of
Common Prayer which you can find if you turn to page </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
are also two versions of the Lord’s Prayer found in the Bible – one is in the sixth
chapter of Gospel of Matthew <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and it goes
like this:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“ Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this
day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil
one. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Matthew 6:9-14)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And, one in the Gospel of Luke and it goes like
this:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(Jesus) said to them, “When you pray, say: Father,
hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And
forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do
not bring us to the time of trial.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Luke 11:1-4</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">)</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The versions of the Lord’s Prayer that we have in
the Book of Common Prayer are similar, one to the Gospel of Matthew – which we
use most of the year and call it the traditional version – and the other to the
Gospel of Luke – which we use in the summer and call it the Contemporary
version. Both versions are based on how Jesus teaches his disciples how to
pray. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">N.T.
Wright, a Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and a New Testament scholar
says this about the Lord’s Prayer: “(it)is not so much a command as an
invitation: an invitation to share in the prayer-life of Jesus himself…..”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8971931882147165593#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">All
Prayer is an invitation into the inner life of the Divine one and brings with
it an opportunity to experience something of that divine life. Prayer is an
invitation into mystery and the idea that there is something at play in the
world that is bigger than we are. This something we call God – the divine
source of all creation, the one who brought forth all life and called it good.
We, being made in the image of that divine source are made good to do good.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
Christians baptism is the invitation into the life of Christ. An invitation
into prayer, an invitation into an understanding of life that helps us make
meaning out our lives, helps us navigate the challenges of life, a life of
community and faith, a life in which we are never alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In baptism we are given the gifts of the Holy
Spirit, the gifts which become our strengths, the gifts which define our lives.
Jesus’ gift is teacher – he teaches us how to live as God desires, how to live
as Jesus did, a life of boundless compassion, love, mercy, and grace for all
people, all creation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mary
Oliver has something to say about the mystery of life and prayer in another poem,
The Summer Day. Here is a portion of that poem:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Who made the world?<br />
Who made the swan, and the black bear?<br />
Who made the grasshopper?<br />
This grasshopper, I mean-<br />
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,….<br />
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.<br />
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down<br />
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,<br />
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,<br />
which is what I have been doing all day.<br />
Tell me, what else should I have done?<br />
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?<br />
Tell me, what is it you plan to do<br />
with your one wild and precious life?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Today we have come to baptize Lexi
into her new life in Christ.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> As a parish family we have been praying for Lexi
and her parents and godparents, for many months – all during
the adoption process. Now today we join our prayer with her prayer and offer
our lifelong commitment to nurture her in her life in Christ. Every person we
baptize we embrace with delight their potential, their new life in Christ, and we
look forward to finding out just:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“What is they will do with their one
wild and precious life!” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let us now
prepare to welcome Lexi into her new life…</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8971931882147165593#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a> http://ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Christian_Prayer.htm</div>
</div>
</div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-27274915240926547842013-01-06T11:53:00.000-08:002013-01-12T11:54:46.161-08:00Epiphany<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Epiphany of Our Lord: a reflection on the readings <i>- </i></span>Isaiah 60.1-6, Psalm 72.1-7, 10-14,
Ephesians 3. 1-12, Matthew 2.1-12 By the Rev. Dr. Sarah Rogers</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Well I woke up this morning, and over my
cup of coffee began thinking about what I needed to get done today and as the
caffeine kicked in realised that I hadn’t written my reflection for this
blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, I have sat down with a second
cup of coffee to write it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apologies for
the lateness, it should have been done by Saturday, I don’t really have an
excuse, I simply forgot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems that
it is easy to forget things at this time of year, everything is so
different...our normal routine is thrown out of kilter, the children are off
school, family we haven’t seen for months come and visit, there are all
Christmas parties and Church services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One of my parishioners completely forgot to come to church last
Wednesday as she would usually do because she’d had the family around on New
Year’s Day for a roast dinner and so thought it was Monday...everything is in a
muddle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, I had an ‘Open House’ on
Saturday, a Christmas celebration at the vicarage for my Parishioners, and
because the first Sunday in the month is always Family Service, I wasn’t
preaching as such yesterday. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is entirely appropriate that at this
time of year our routine is disrupted, the coming of the Messiah is an event
that should cause disruption even today as we recall that great event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary and Joseph had the upheaval of going to
Bethlehem, the shepherds were sent out of the fields by the angels to find the Christ-child,
and the appearance of a great star in the sky brought the Wise Men from distant
lands to worship the baby Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
arrival of this new baby, the king of the Jews also frightened Herod leading
him to order the execution of all baby boys under the age of three, we can only
imagine what agony that brought to their mothers and fathers, life for them
would never be the same again.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We don’t know how many Wise Men there
were, all we know is that there was more than one and that they brought three
gifts, so we assume there were three, each of them bringing a gift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are called Wise Men because they were
star-gazers, but they are also known as ‘Kings’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tradition has it that Melchior was a Persian
s</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">cholar, Caspar an Indian scholar and Balthazar an
Arabian scholar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These traditions have
come about as scholars over the last 2000 years have attempted to find out who
these mysterious Wise Men were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
must have been reasonably wealthy to offer gifts of gold, frankincense and
myrrh, and they were obviously quite distinguished gentlemen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t help wondering whether they really
travelled alone or whether they had an entourage with them, did they bring
wives and servants, who else greeted the baby Jesus. In reality it doesn’t
really matter, we can get too bogged down with the nitty gritty of working out
who these Wise Men were, what really matters is WHY they came.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They came because God sent them, leading
them by a star to Bethlehem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God has
been playing a very long game, beginning with Abraham, gradually building a
nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Jesus was not just for that
nation, God was sending him into the world for everyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, the Wise Men come to represent us
all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They remind us that it doesn’t
matter where we come from, what we look like, who are parents were or what
language we speak. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone can know
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Wise Men represented all the
nations, so God not only welcomed them, but us as well.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now that Christmas is over life is getting
back to normal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The children are
returning to school, work routines are back to normal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, let us not forget the disruption that
the arrival of the Messiah caused as we welcomed him again at Christmas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the next few weeks the Messiah will be
revealed to us when John Baptises his cousin, through the first miracle at the
wedding at Cana when water is changed into wine, when Jesus reveals that he is
the fulfilment of the scripture in the synagogue in Nazareth and finally in the
Temple at Candlemas when Simeon and Anna see Jesus they recognise the child as
the Messiah, but not just the Messiah of Israel but as Simeon says ‘a light for
revelation to the Gentiles.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For those
who witnessed these events there must have been great confusion, they must have
been disturbed, unsettled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As our
routines get back to normal, let us continue to be disturbed by God, but also
to make sure that in all we do we make sure that the presence of God disturbs
those around us as well. </span></div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-44339441423603466872012-12-29T07:08:00.001-08:002012-12-30T09:34:41.670-08:00The Work of Christmas<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A reflection on the readings for Christmas 1</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">: Luke 2:41-52<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> by the Rev. Margaret Rose </span></span></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>
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By the time Christmas 1 rolls around, I confess that I am
ready for something new.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This year,
especially, at least on the East Coast of the US, it was a year of trying to
make sense of all that has happened, of trying to see where our faith fits,
where God engages, and where the incarnation makes sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the email airwaves there were multitudes
of sermons about Hurricane Sandy and most especially about the killings at
Sandy Hook School in Newtown Connecticut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Where was God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could God let
this happen?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the questions which
return<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to us in the face of evil or
tragedy or the incomprehensibly destruction of too many lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were wonderful reflections from across
the religious spectrum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And one of the
best came from Maureen Dowd in an <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>editorial in the New York Times on December
26.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>( You can find it on line, called
Why, God?)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A priest friend of hers
suggested that the meaning of the incarnation really has to do with human
beings’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>call to be love’s presence in
the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is who Jesus was and
that is who we are called to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My own
thoughts on Christmas Eve were similar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is, that in the face of life’s joys and sufferings, good and evil,
what we have is the promise of God’s presence with us—Emmanuelle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not a zapper God who fixes things, or
who holds the puppet strings of the world, or who rewards us when we are “good”
or punishes us when we are bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is a
god of presence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as the priest said,
often experienced through other people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God’s promise is “I will be with you, even to
the end of time.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Often we know this and have glimpses of that promise,
especially <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>when we are most in need,
when there is only God to cling to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>those who reach out to us <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in our circle of love and community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or even strangers as has been the case this
year with Sandy and Newtown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My wish for something new was really a desire to move out of
my thoughts,out of trying to make sense of everything, away from words or even
the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>deep spiritual work that is this
season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am ready to get back to the
routine, I suppose, back to the work of everyday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact to the business that the incarnation
calls us toward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Luke’s <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gospel we
have the wonderful story of Mary and Joseph heading to Jerusalem for the
Passover. Upon their return,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>traveling
with many from Nazareth, Mary and Joseph<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>lose Jesus in the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>crowd and
discover that he has stayed behind. They go back to the city and find him <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>teaching in the temple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luke’s version has Jesus say that he must be
in his father’s house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others, and the
one I remember from childhood, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was Jesus
replying to his parents,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Don’t you know
I must be<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>about my Father’s
business.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such a response would be no surprise to any
parent of an adolescent today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I
certainly wonder how Joseph must have felt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But for us perhaps it is the message of what is next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I think about this
text assigned for Christmas 1, it seems that this is the “something new”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
time now to get back to business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>perhaps the routine of life,
but rather the business that God has called us to as we live into the reality
of the Incarnation, of God with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is, as Dr. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Howard Thurman wrote in his familiar poem
which I leave with you as the reflection for this Sunday: </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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When the song of the angels is stilled,<br />
When the star in the sky is gone,<br />
When the kings and princes are home,<br />
When the shepherds are back with their flock,<br />
The work of Christmas begins:<br />
<br />
To find the lost,<br />
To heal the broken,<br />
To feed the hungry,<br />
To release the prisoner,<br />
To rebuild the nations,<br />
To bring peace among brothers,<br />
To make music in the heart.</div>
<br />
<br />
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May we look with hope toward 2013 with God ‘s promise of
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Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-54898684138922193362012-12-22T11:00:00.000-08:002012-12-29T07:09:03.919-08:00Advent's Invitation: A reflection for Advent 4C<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"> </span>A reflection on Advent 4C by the Rev. Dr. Katherine Godby</i><b><i> </i></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Advent
this year has been a special time for me. I’ve had a year of
change—moving to a new job at a new church, and a year of dealing with
health problems—provoking a rethinking of my identity as an embodied
being with significant human limits. So I found myself wondering these
weeks of Advent: <i>what exactly is Advent’s invitation?</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i> </i> </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">In
this season of honest reflection, I love the idea that Advent offers us
yet another opportunity to give birth to the Christ within us. We’ve
been created in the image of God, or Christ, but as we grow up, that
divine image gets tarnished, diminished, or deadened by various fears.
Giving birth to the Christ within us means allowing that divine image to
once again flourish, and as I know from experience, it is a
never-ending process.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Allowing
the divine image within us to really flourish in our lives is, I think,
intricately tied to Advent as the anticipation of the Incarnation, the
coming of God into this world in human form. <i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Can we see that God continues coming into the world, even now, through each of us?</span></i>
We are called to carry forward the Incarnation, to be Christ’s hands
and feet in the world, to allow the image of Christ to shape how we
live, how we care and relate, and how we love.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">How
ironic that the season of the year in which we’re called to
contemplative reflection, asking ourselves important questions, is the
same season that makes that calling difficult. Advent asks us to make
contact with our need for salvation. But the culture of Santa Claus
tells us that buying this and that will save us. Advent wants to know: <i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">What is that emptiness I keep trying to feed—with food, or fantasy, or excitement, or busyness?</span></i>
The culture of Santa Claus has the answer: stay busy with a million
distractions and you won’t even know that you’re restless and empty!</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">But
thanks be to God, that denial doesn’t have to last forever. The Holy
Spirit keeps sending us two vital things: signals that we’re not being
honest with ourselves and impulses toward the courage we need to face
that dishonesty.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">We
have no need to fear Advent’s invitation. The prophet Isaiah writes: “A
voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make
straight in the desert a highway for our God”—we prepare for God by
being honest about the desert of our own hearts . . . “Comfort, O
comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to
her that she has served her term, her penalty is paid”—a message of
reassurance and forgiveness.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Whatever
we find when we honestly look inside our hearts is simply part of our
life’s experience, not the totality of who we are. And <i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">in itself</span></i>
this act of honest reflection begins the birth of forgiveness, regained
strength, healing grief—it begins over and over again this miraculous
process of transformation toward which God calls us. Advent reminds us
that our Savior is coming, and is already here, and the joy that is our
birthright lies just beneath the surface of whatever concerns us.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">So that’s a bit of what I’ve concluded about Advent’s invitation to me this year – what about you? </span></div>
<b> </b>Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-1715754273269647152012-12-15T13:51:00.000-08:002012-12-15T13:51:15.185-08:00Advent 3C, what can we say?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have nothing to say today. Do you? Let us all know.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is all I know. A friend from my seminary class is the
rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Newton, Connecticut. Another friend told
us that the child of a college classmate of hers was one of the children
killed. Knowing those people, even distantly, brings me, all of us, close to
that terrible day and time and place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I found these things on Facebook: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Steve Charleston, wise elder, spiritual leader, Episcopal
bishop, posted this on Thursday night:</div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Standing alone at night, beneath a
curious moon, I searched for that single star, the one that would be my sign of
hope. But instead, I saw a field of stars, cast shimmering across the heavens,
a countless sweep of stars, more than I could carry. Hope and you do not hope
alone. Love and you do not love alone. Like stars our dreams are cast to high
heaven, some to lead us to all we imagined, others only to watch over us on our
way, but all shine together, all share the same beauty. We do not pass this way
alone, but journey in light, beneath a curious moon.</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From my friend Joyce, an art history professor:</div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
… these things always seem to
happen in northern/capitalist/Protestant countries. I am still waiting to hear
about the problem of adolescent mental illness and social marginalization that
is at the cause of all these shootings, on top of the easy access to guns.
There is something about the loss of community and social support that leads to
this level of despair. I also don't think that it's an accident that shooters
often target children and/or carry out violence in schools.</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A parishioner, T., who is a drama major, performed this
semester in a production of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Thousand
Cranes</i>, that was performed in all the area school. The play concerns the
bombing of Hiroshima, as seen through the eyes of a little girl. T. writes:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Coming off of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Thousand Cranes</i>, I wish everyone would take a moment to
contemplate how we treat each other. After the violence that has occurred in
the last few weeks and over the course of the year it is clear to me that it is
more important now than ever that we all treat each other with respect and
dignity. Show others the same amount of love that you expect to be given and
where conflict arises take a step back and try to see the problem from other
angles so a compromise can be made. Remember, it is not the length of life or
number of achievements that make a life rewarding but instead it is in the way
we treat others and the world around us. Now go fold some Cranes and have a
safe and happy Holiday.</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A. is in high school. She wrote:</div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Let me just ask what the hell has
this world come to, where a man can walk into an elementary school. Filled with
CHILDREN, each wondering what presents they will get for Christmas, what they
ate at snack, things little kids should be concerned about. 18 children as of
right now ranging in ages from 5-10 years old have lost their lives. Their
friends have lost classmates, and teachers; and in turn their innocence, sense
of security and will most likely suffer these effects for the rest of their
lives. Their parents have lost the loves of their lives. Horrific. Disgusting.
Unbelievable. Those words don't even begin to explain this tragedy. And let me
just say, I pray for that THING that caused all of this pain. RIP</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
C., who is a film company executive, posted:</div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Within a few days, we will know
their names. We will know their faces. We will know what they liked, what they
were looking forward to about the holidays, what their favorite subjects were
in school, what they wanted to be when they grew up. We will know the twenty
names with which, in a normal and sane world, we would not necessarily cross
paths - unless they did something truly extraordinary with their lives.
And now, inexplicably, horrifically, they will never get that chance. Now, we
must find a way to hold their families, teachers, and friends - in a way that
we would want to be held were the tables turned - even if it is only in our
hearts. There is no sense to be made of this, but we need to do right by the
ones who are left behind, whose lives are forever altered. My hope would be,
for this moment and those in the days to come, that these are the people on
whom we'll choose to focus.</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is what the people say, full of grief and longing. The
challenge to us is, what do we, the preachers, say?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Among Jenee Woodard’s resources, I found this from Diana
Butler Bass from nearly two years ago, after the shooting of Gabrielle
Giffords. In <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/christianityfortherestofus/2011/01/congresswoman-gabrielle-giffords-speaking-for-the-soul.html">Speaking
for the Soul</a>, she chastised preachers for leaving people hanging, people
you are yearning with their very beings for a word of guidance, a way to make
sense of the senseless, a hook, a frame, some way to put the unspeakable into
the story of God among us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
At their best, American pulpits are
not about taking sides and blaming. Those pulpits should be places
to reflect on theology and life, on the Word and our words. I hope
that sermons tomorrow will go beyond expressions of sympathy or calls for
civility and niceness. Right now, we need some sustained spiritual
reflection on how badly we have behaved in recent years as Americans–how much we’ve allowed fear to motivate our politics, how cruel we’ve allowed our discourse
to become, how little we’ve listened, how much we’ve dehumanized public
servants, how much we hate.</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br />
Read more: <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/christianityfortherestofus/2011/01/congresswoman-gabrielle-giffords-speaking-for-the-soul.html#ixzz2F9g8TlWm">http://blog.beliefnet.com/christianityfortherestofus/2011/01/congresswoman-gabrielle-giffords-speaking-for-the-soul.html#ixzz2F9g8TlWm</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/opinion/collins-looking-for-america.html?ref=opinion">Gail
Collins wrote this in Saturday’s New York Times</a>, reminding us that despite
the remorse surrounding each incidence of gun violence, no one in civic
leadership, from President Obama on down, does anything to change the law.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
America needs to tackle gun
violence because we need to redefine who we are. We have come to regard
ourselves — and the world has come to regard us — as a country that’s so gun
happy that the right to traffic freely in the most obscene quantities of
weapons is regarded as far more precious than an American’s right to health
care or a good education. We have to make ourselves better.
Otherwise, the story from Connecticut is too unspeakable to bear.</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If nothing else, we Christians have at the core of our story
another story that is too unspeakable to bear. We are preparing this month to
remember the birth of the child who will grow to bear that burden. Surely God,
who gave us all, wants us, once we have prayed for the dead and comforted the
grieving, to do more.</div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-70099049754823921042012-12-08T15:19:00.000-08:002012-12-08T15:19:21.859-08:00Advent 2C<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Reflection on Luke 3:1-6 by the Rev. Dr. Kate
Hennessy-Keimig</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Even more than usual, the themes of Advent are striking a
particular resonance with me this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
time of waiting, of the in-between and the “not-yet” has become very
familiar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wilderness too, that wild
and unfamiliar place that takes us to our edges and, if we let it, to places of
transformation and new beginnings, has started to map its landscape onto my
heart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">John’s familiar message strikes a ringing chord as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While it’s true, as always, that I cannot
hear the passage from Isaiah </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">without
hearing Handel’s beautiful melody <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8971931882147165593" name="3">… </a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8971931882147165593" name="2"><span style="mso-bookmark: 3;">“</span></a></span><span style="mso-bookmark: 2;"><span style="mso-bookmark: 3;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God</span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: 3;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">,
every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low, the
crooked straight, and the rough places plain</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">,”
this year I am hearing the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">words</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">themselves</i></b> anew, with sharp and clear images about just how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">much</i> difference we are talking about in this
altered landscape, as well as the amount of effort, movement and, yes, probably
pain, would be involved in such change.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’ve been watching the building of a new bridge in my
town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It started a few years before we
moved here and it won’t be all done until December of 2014.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has involved the moving of tons of earth,
the removal of buildings, the rerouting of lanes of traffic, and actual changes
in where roads come and go. Places that were once flat are now sloped and
places that were steeper have been graded down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Men spend days just grinding on pieces of cement to make them smooth and
precise so that things will fit together in just the way they need to for
safety and endurance on the new structure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When the new bridge is all done, the old one, which has been a staple of
the town landscape for almost a century, will be demolished, and a new pathway
with four wide, smooth lanes of traffic will take us back and forth across the
river. The bridge builders are very proud of the fact that there have been no
fatalities during the very daunting task of constructing this bridge, but
certainly there have been people injured, and there have been accidents as
drivers have not adapted to the changes caused by the construction. Traffic has
been slow and congested at times and it’s been difficult, irritating, and a
general source of frustration for many people for several years as we wait for
a new bridge to come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Personally, too, in the last few years, there have been a
lot of changes in the landscape of my life. Since 2010, there has been a
wedding, with its combining of households, two more complete moves of house and
town, the ends and beginnings between my husband and I of six jobs, and a
return to school for him, the aborted attempt to sell a house, and recently the
re-start of that effort, the beginning and premature end of a CPE program, a
small stint in a parish begun in hope that did not work out, and one that
seemed to have much promise that never even got off the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of late, there have been some of those “close
calls” with medical tests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You know the
ones, where you get the call-back, “something is there, and we want another
look.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So you go, and they look, and you
wait, and you worry, you hope and you pray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And, even though, thanks be to God, all <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">has </i>been well in the end, during the waiting, at least if you are
me, you go to that wilderness of worst-case scenario, every single time. It
seems like it’s been the Advent of my life for quite a while now, and I’m
finding myself trying to make some sense of it, and to answer the “God
questions” in the midst of it.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Change and transformation do not usually happen without
effort and, most often, not without some level of pain and discomfort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being in the wilderness, by chance or by
choice, often pushes our limits and taxes our endurance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes we take it on by choice because we
want to grow or change and we know somehow that we need to be in an environment
that will enable this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes the
wilderness seems to find us, and the choice becomes what we will do while we
are there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because there is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">always</i> a choice for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike the mute dirt and rock of the valleys
and mountains, we get to choose whether we will listen to the message of the
journey, whether we will allow ourselves to be changed by it. We decide whether
we will let the wilderness do its work upon us to straighten out the kinks in
our thinking, open our hearts to encompass a wider scope of emotion, smooth the
rough places in our souls. We can turn and choose to see how God is present in
this time, this moment, or we can hide under a rock, lost in the fear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can open ourselves up to a new vision of
things, a changed landscape, a different path, or we can cling stubbornly to
“how it was, is, or should be.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can
stretch ourselves a bit to allow space for whatever new thing God might be
doing in our corner of the world, or we can curl in and remain small. We can participate
and co-create in the process of things being made new, or we can refuse, the
choice is ours. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We are invited into the ongoing process of preparing for
the coming always and again into our own wilderness of the One who is ever
here/ever new. Sometimes, as my husband reminded me recently, I have to be “encouraged”
to do things for my own benefit. I need to be reminded sometimes that just a
little effort on that landscape will likely pay off, and might even bring joy! Prepare
the way of the Lord, he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> coming!</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-28735116236012485892012-11-30T17:17:00.001-08:002012-11-30T17:17:24.914-08:00Advent 1A reflection on the readings for Advent 1C: Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 and Luke 21:25-36 by Janine A. Goodwin, M.A., M.S. Ed.<br /><i><br />There
will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth
distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the
world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see
‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when
these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because
your redemption is drawing near.</i><br />
<br />The readings for this week are apocalyptic. We've made that word
come to mean the end of the world, and often a violent end at that.
Movies and popular culture throw out more apocalypses than cell phone
apps. Just off the top of my head, there's the classic war film
Apocalypse Now and the increasingly popular idea of the zombie
apocalypse. People joke about their post-apocalyptic skill
sets--crocheting, knitting, spinning, cooking from scratch, raising
chickens, woodworking with hand tools. <br />
<br />But that's not what the word "apocalypse" really means. It means
"unveiling." It means finding the hidden meanings and truths that lie
behind current events and everyday existence. Apocalyptic writing, like
the passage from Luke and the books of Daniel and Revelation, use
complex symbolism to try and make sense of the world, and to
prophesy--another loaded word: a prophecy is not a fortuneteller's
prediction, but a projection forward, a warning of what may come if we
don't change direction or a vision of hope and trust in God's ability to
save the world from whatever mess we've made of it. The truth of
prophecy does not lie in whether it came true the way a weather
prediction comes true; it lies in the deeper insight it gives into our
existence and God's way of working in the world.<br />
<br />In popular culture, and in too much of Christian history, both
apocalypse and prophecy have often gotten warped by triumphalism.
Triumphalism is the belief that there is one right interpretation, I've
got it, and the rest of you, up to and including everyone in the past
several thousand years, are all wrong. There are two large problems with
that attitude. The first is that the people with this attitude tend to
make rash predictions, which are proven to be wrong. People who set a
date for the end of the world end up looking bewildered the day after
the world failed to end on schedule. My parents, who seldom bought a
book but never got rid of one, owned a book that was published nearly a
hundred years ago: that book lined up every single event in Revelation
with the early part of the First World War. Its presence in our home and
its manifest failure at predicting the end, which should have come
sometime in the 1920s, helped me get out of an anxiety attack caused by a
similar book that was written in the early 1970s and is similarly
obsolete now. The first problem, then, can be simple.<br />
<br /> The second problem is more complex and far more serious:
triumphalism is a failure of humility and charity. It has no place in a
living faith. It does not bring us closer to God.<br />Thinking that we,
and only we, know what God has said or is saying or is going to do cuts
us off from other people of faith, including people of other faiths,
just when we need to be talking to them. It gives us a sense of safety,
but that safety is spurious. It's not a way of knowing God, but a way of
trying to control God and tell God what to do, which, as the history of
our faith (and just about anyone else's) tells us, never ends
well. Humility before God requires that we do our best to learn and
understand Scripture, but can never fully know the mind of God and must
not presume to do so. Charity requires that we are always open to the
insights of others, past and present. Feminist theology, liberation
theology, and new scholarship do not make old work valueless; they
enhance it. They add new voices and insights to the rich, long
conversation the human race is always having about faith. Even when
older work is demonstrably wrong, our corrections of those wrongs do not
make us superior to those who came before us; in most cases they, like
we, were doing the best they could. If they were dishonest, let us
acknowledge it and then look to make our own work and lives as honest as
we can. Good scholarship honors the truth and seeks the truth, but does
not presume to own it. <br />
<br />The reality of prophecy and apocalyptic is this: the writer had that
time, place, and situation in mind, and the writings also have meaning
for other people at other times. This is partly because human history
does tend to repeat itself. There are always signs in the heavens and
distress among nations, and we are always wondering how the story of
this world will end. It is also because we look for meaning and hope,
turning to ancient writings for insight. It is good to do that as long
as we do not ask for, or fabricate, more certainty than there actually
is, or force our certainties on others.<br />
<br />Prophecy and apocalyptic, when we don't warp them into ways to make
ourselves feel safe or superior, point to trust
in God and openness to one another. The fact is that we don't know the
future; only God knows when and how the end of our individual lives and
the life of the world will end. The good news, which we often forget, is
that our redemption, whatever it is, is always drawing near. The
apocalypse is, indeed, always now, because the truth is always being
unveiled. Thanks be to God.<br />
<br /><br />A footnote: two very good works about the apocalyptic book of Revelation are <i>The Power of the Lamb: Revelation's Theology of Liberation for You</i>, by Ward Ewing, and <i>The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation, </i>by Barbara R. Rossing. If you are inclined to choose a book for Advent reading, I'd strongly recommend either of them. Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-86543242177531444262012-11-03T15:08:00.003-07:002012-11-03T15:08:38.168-07:00All Saints' Day<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">A reflection by the Rev. Crystal Karr...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Isaiah 25:1-10</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will
praise your name; for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old,
faithful and sure. <sup> </sup>For you have made the city a heap, the
fortified city a ruin; the palace of aliens is a city no more, it will never be
rebuilt. <sup> </sup>Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of
ruthless nations will fear you.<sup> </sup>For you have been a refuge to the
poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and
a shade from the heat. When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter
rainstorm, t<sup> </sup>he noise of aliens like heat in a dry place, you
subdued the heat with the shade of clouds; the song of the ruthless was
stilled.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make
for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food
filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. <sup> </sup>And he
will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the
sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. <sup>
</sup>Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and
the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for
the Lord has spoken.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we
have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for
whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For the
hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain. The Moabites shall be
trodden down in their place as straw is trodden down in a dung-pit.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Many of us will be celebrating All
Saints Sunday tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the day in
which we honor our dead—the saints who have lived among us, fellow believers,
teachers, leaders, and inspirations of faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We share their stories, remembering how their faith touched our lives
and helped us to go a bit farther along our faith walk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a time in which the scriptures take the
form of flesh and blood as we tell the tales of grace lived out, love taking
human form as we remember one of our beloveds who taught us how to live more
like Christ—lending a hand, offering a shoulder to cry upon, practicing grace
and forgiveness in the most difficult of circumstances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a day in which we practice resurrection
as we reflect and remember, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and are
inspired <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to live out of the hope and
love gifted to us by those who have passed on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I love how on this day, the
scriptures we read leave the page and jump into our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Aunt Susie died last week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s not the average church woman, not a
traditional pillar of faith by any means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She would rather sit in a bar smoking and drinking with the guys than
spend any time in church at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet,
she taught me that believing in something didn’t mean a damn thing unless my
life reflected what I believed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My rough
spoken, hard living Aunt Susie taught me that the scriptures I study take on
flesh and blood in this present life, and if they don’t, well then they don’t
mean a damn thing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Susie lived in my grandparents’
farmhouse on the outskirts of town along a bend in the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Between the bend in the road and the steep
drive rarely did anyone pull in to turn around or ask for directions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet one day as Susie was at the back of the
house, someone knocked on the door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
nearly jumped out of my skin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
cautiously approached the door, having learned at school to be afraid of
strangers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I looked through the glass to
see a raggedy bearded man standing there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just when I turned my head to call for Susie, she was standing there and
barking at me to open the damned door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She invited him in; he wanted a glass of water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She sent me to get the water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He drank it and left. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Did you know that guy?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Nope.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Then why did you invite him in?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“He might have been Jesus.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Susie didn’t
need someone in robes telling her what was proper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She didn’t want to hear about sinning and
combating evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She wanted and needed to
live out the Gospel as best she could, without words but with deeds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned from her that day, that I need not
be afraid of strangers, they might be Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As I grew in faith, I discovered that Jesus, the Christ, a spark of
divine, lives within each of us, every human being on the face of the
planet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is my job to recognize that
spark and treat each one with the same love and compassion I would offer to
Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Like my Aunt
Susie, sometimes I do so masterfully while far too often I fail miserably.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, it was Aunt Susie who taught me that
living out the Gospel is a must for my faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If sitting in a pew on Sunday mornings is where it begins and ends it is
worthless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I worship a God who promises
to care for the poor, the needy, the distressed and thus this is part of what I
do as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not honor my God if I
turn a blind eye to those in need; offer a cup of water to the Christ before
me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Too often Christianity is presented
as a promise of life after death---as in Revelation 21:1-6:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea
was no more.<sup> </sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I saw the
holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. <sup> </sup>And I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with
them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with
them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed
away.” <sup> </sup>And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I
am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are
trustworthy and true.”<sup> </sup>Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give
water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We take courage and assurance with the promise that God will
set all things right, that one day our tears and sorrows will be wiped
away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, that is not all of our
Christian faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we look to another
of today’s lectionary scriptures, Matthew 5:1-12 we find a blessing on those
who are struggling, not just for their afterlife but for their life on
earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Throughout the New Testament
Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God has come near.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Kingdom of God is here and now if only we have the eyes to see and
the ears to hear, and each day we have the opportunity to participate in making
the Kingdom of God present in this life on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have been invited to participate in
creating God’s justice on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have
been invited to offer a cup of water to the Christ before us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have been invited to make the scriptures
put on flesh and blood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have been
invited to inspire and lead others who may be younger in the faith and
encourage them upon their journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps one day, they will be celebrating and resurrecting you through
stories and remembrances of your life, your love, your faith that so embodied
and made real the love and grace of God that it helped them to believe, to live
as though their faith mattered and made a damn big difference.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>May you be
blessed to see, hear, and participate in the Kingdom of God this day and every
day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Jeremiah 31. 7-9, Psalm 126, Hebrews 7.
23-28, Mark 10. 46b-52 by The Rev. Dr. Sarah Rogers</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I can’t
say that I follow American politics particularly avidly, I know the
Presidential election is imminent and realise that it is important to keep
abreast of what is happening politically around the world as it inevitably has
a knock-on effect on the rest of the globe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mind you, I find it hard enough to keep up with what is happening in
Europe, let alone across the pond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All
that said..I am a huge fan of ‘The West Wing’, I came to it rather late on, so
didn’t see it when it was on TV here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So, I caught up with it on DVD, borrowed from my brother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was gripped, watching back-to-back episodes
for nights in a row.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">In
thinking about the readings for this Sunday, I am reminded of that wonderful
scene in the ‘Two Cathedrals’ episode, when Jed Bartlett is alone in the
Cathedral after Mrs <span style="background: white;">Landingham</span>’s funeral
and he really lays into God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could
he take Mrs <span style="background: white;">Landingham</span> in that way…he is
at the end of his rope and lays it all at the altar in a very dramatic
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A true example of lamentation, very
similar to some of the psalms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you
haven’t seen it, or want to refresh your memory you should be able to see it on
u-tube if you click this link http://www.youtube.com/embed/GBAleMrZQzA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His words in Latin are particularly
poignant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says ‘<span style="background: white;">gratias tibi ago, domine.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>haec credam a deo pio, a deo justo, a
deo scito?<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>cruciatus in crucem<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>tuus in terra servus, nuntius fui;
officium perfeci.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>cruciatus in
crucem eas in crucem<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Which I believe roughly means...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Thank you, Lord.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Am
I to believe these things from a righteous god, a just god, a wise god? To hell
with your punishments! (literally "(put/send) punishments onto a
cross")<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>I was your
servant, your messenger on the earth; I did my duty.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>To hell with your punishments!<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>And to hell with you!<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>(literally, "may you go to a
cross")</i><b>"</b><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Today’s
readings don’t include such a clear example of lamentation, but they certainly
allude to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the reading from
Jeremiah we are told that ‘With weeping they will come, and with consolation I
will lead them back’, Psalm 126 is essentially a psalm of thanksgiving, but
again ‘Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.’, in the letter
to the Hebrews we are reminded of the weakness of our humanity that necessitates
daily sacrifice and in the gospel reading from Mark we find Bartimaeus, the
blind man who has suffered all his life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bartimaeus is a little bit different, he doesn’t seem to be angry at God
for his fate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had been completely
blind since birth, he had never seen any of the beauty of the world, but he is
also poor as he is sitting at the side of the road begging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No doubt as a child he was cared for by his
parents, but because he was blind there would have been no employment for him
as he grew up and so he would have fallen into destitution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, Bartimaeus had clearly heard people
talking about Jesus, he would not have witnessed any of his many miracles, but
he had heard all about them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">So no doubt
when he heard that Jesus was passing by he was filled with hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He must have had a friend close by, filling
him in on the unfolding drama as Jesus and his entourage approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he hears that Jesus is close by he calls
on him to have mercy on him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">What surprises
me about this story is the reaction of those around Bartimaeus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus can’t go anywhere without hundreds of
people following him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have
witnessed his many miracles and the way he has healed others and yet, they
treat Bartimaeus with disdain and tell him to be quiet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bartimaeus is the lowest of the low and not
worthy of their consideration, he is a blind beggar man. It is only Jesus who
treats him with any kindness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One can’t
imagine what it is like to be blind, to not be able to see the beauty of this
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bartimaeus responds to Jesus’
kindness wholeheartedly, he throws off his cloak as he springs up from his seat
at the roadside, he had complete certainty that Jesus would cure him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a wonderful image, as in throwing off
his cloak Bartimaeus reveals himself to those around, he is no longer hiding
under a heavy cloak somehow ashamed of who he is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I can’t
help wondering who is truly blind in this story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bartimaeus may be physically blind, but
spiritually he is clear sighted, he knows that Jesus is the answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without Jesus we are all blind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those around Bartimaeus are certainly blind
to that, otherwise they would have tried to help him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus freed Bartimaeus, we can only imagine
the joy he felt, seeing a human face for the first time, a tree, the beautiful
blue sky, the sun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus, the great high
priest, the perfect one, the one who doesn’t need to make sacrifices everyday
because he has atoned for the sins of all the world by dying on the cross for
us, doesn’t treat Batimaeus with disdain, he treats him the same as everyone
else who calls upon him, he simply asks ‘What do you want me to do for you?’,
such a simple question, full of compassion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When we reach out to God in our distress all he asks is to know what he
can do for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bartimaeus had complete
faith and trust in Jesus and that brought him healing, he regained his
sight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The trials and tribulations of
everyday life can sometimes seem so severe, that we really lay into God and
plead with him for release from our suffering and we get angry, just as Jed
Bartlett did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may not get the answer
straight away, it may not come in the way we expect, but we can be sure it will
come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Jed, his consolation comes
when the dead Mrs <span style="background: white;">Landingham</span> appears to
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may not know when or where our
consolation will come from…but we can be sure that it will come.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-4652771739669017742012-10-20T15:29:00.003-07:002012-10-20T15:42:02.022-07:00WORDS MATTER<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>A reflection the readings for<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Proper 24/B: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Job 38:1-7, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hebrews 4:12-16, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mark 10:35-45 - by The Rev. Margaret Rose</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At the back
of the dining hall where I went to camp every summer as a child there is a
large wooden plaque.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On it is
written:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Words are so powerful that
they should only be used to bless, to heal, and to prosper.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The saying may have come from some poet, but
I knew them from the owner of the camp, Sue Henry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sue had many such sayings that only she could
get across with great meaning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had
been a boarding school English teacher—one of those who cared deeply about
students, teaching and the world at large.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Another of her sayings was “Humor that hurts another is not humor at
all”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can be sure there was not a
lot of bullying at that camp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Words were meant to be used carefully and
only as needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Words are so powerful
they should only be used to bless, to heal and to prosper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Holy
Scripture of course, and perhaps Christianity itself, is all about words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John’s Gospel is the prime example:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“In the beginning was the Word and the Word
was with God and the word was God.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the
scripture lesson from Job, God speaks out of the silence of the whirlwind to
the suffering Job, “ Who is this that darkens counsel by words without
knowledge.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In other words, do not
speak unless you know what you are talking about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And in the text of the Hebrews<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>there is a vivid picture of the power of words in scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The word of God is living and active,
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit,
joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the
heart.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can almost see words
dividing soul from spirit when hearing certain news---the diagnosis of cancer,
the quiet word from the doctor that there was nothing that could be done, the
difficult word that a friendship or lifelong partnership has ended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Words <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“dividing
joints from marrow” remind me of standing at the butcher counter watching the
skilled butcher at his craft, with the sharpest of knives, remove the bones
from the piece of meat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t often
think of words in such a powerful way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Sticks and Stones may break my bones but
words will never hurt me.” Not True. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes
they will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Actually
that is what the political campaigns that we have been suffering these past few
months are all about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whose words will carry
the day? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the debates are certainly a
verbal boxing match with the hope that our particular candidate will deliver
the knock out blow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet words, even
political words, also have the power to heal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Last night I watched the videos of the two candidates for President
speaking at the Al Smith Foundation dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sponsored by the Catholic Church, it raises money for children in
poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The words this time were
roasts—humor used to help each laugh with the other and finally to state that
what really matters is the state of the world and how to make it better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These words were used to heal to bless to
prosper, even among the politicians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Recently,
theologian Gustav Niebuhr wrote an article in the Harvard Divinity School
magazine called, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Choosing Words over
Bullets. </i>In it he spoke of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Parliament of World Religions, an
organization which for over a century has sought peace and understanding, and
promotes<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>efforts of the various
religions to find ways to talk to one another, to share their religious
traditions—Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Buddhist, Jain, and more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They seek mutual understanding and lay a
foundation that puts relationship over turf battles, among religious traditions
or indeed nation states. Recent news makes this interreligious understanding
and dialogue <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>even more vital for peace
in our world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How quick we are to assume
that one group does not care as much as another about human life or to
generalize one experience and claim this is the religious norm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Words may not seem like much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when they are the cause of violence in
the name of our religions <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they have the
power of a two edged sword.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the
Gospel today, it is the disciples who do not know the power of their words. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Almost like children they ask Jesus for a
favor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Let us sit next to you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let us be your special ones, at the places of
honor on your right and on your left. Jesus is quick to reply.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You do not know what you are saying.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lets them know that this request is one
which calls for great sacrifice, suffering and death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other disciples, of course, ( in not much
more mature fashion) are angry that the two would seek a special place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As only Jesus can do, he moves to the heart
of the matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their life together is
not about who can sit at the right or left hand of God but who can be a
disciple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And discipleship is about
servanthood , caring less about who is the greatest, or who might rule over
another but how one might follow Jesus, coming not to serve but to serve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eventually Jesus words or his refusal to speak
brought him to the cross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I imagine
that he was always aware of their spoken power, not only to heal, bless and
prosper, but as the Incarnate Word for the salvation of God’s world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Rev’d
Margaret Rose</span></div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-15887803224655769522012-10-13T13:23:00.000-07:002012-10-13T13:26:26.046-07:00Sometimes Stuff Happens, Even Grace...<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">A reflection on the readings for Proper 23B: <span style="line-height: 115%;">Job
23:1-9, 16-17; </span><span class="citation"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Hebrews
4:12-16; Mark
10:17-31 by the Rev. Terri C. Pilarski</span></span></span></span></i><br />
<br />
Last week our readings were very complex. We began the book of Job with some
troubling concepts presented about God, humanity, and the Satan. And we heard a
difficult reading in the Gospel of Mark about divorce. But as a congregation we
were celebrating the feast day of St. Francis and the kids were with us for the
entire service. So instead of reflecting on the difficult readings I read a
story, directed at the kids, but relevant to all of us, and we talked about the
life and ministry of St. Francis.<br />
<br />
So – this morning we have a little catching up to do. Let’s begin with last
week’s troubling passage in Mark about divorce. Remember someone asked Jesus if
it was okay for a husband to divorce his wife. And Jesus says, yes, according
to the law of Moses it is okay. But, Jesus says, that doesn’t mean it is the
right thing to do.<br />
<br />
What Jesus is referring too, however, is not the kind of relationship that
married couples have in this country today. Jesus is referring to legal
contracts which made the wife a man’s possession. Cancelling this legal
contract and disowning the wife meant that the woman was abandoned. She became a
target for abuse, poverty, disease, and death. Jesus is making the marriage
contract a binding one in order that women will be protected.<br />
<br />
We also began the book of Job last week. It has been said that Job is a
noble work of literature equal to the Greek tragedies, Dante’s Diving Comedy,
Milton’s Paradise Lost and Goethe’s Faust. Modeled also on an ancient Babylonian
myth about the god Marduk, Job exemplifies the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>literature of that era exploring the reality
of suffering and the meaning of life. Job was probably written between the 6<sup>th</sup>
and 3<sup>rd</sup> century BCE.<br />
<br />
The characters in Job include:<br />
<br />
God, who has a court of counselors who advise God.<br />
<br />
The Satan – one of the members of God’s council. The Satan in Job is not the
demonic counterforce familiar in Christianity and portrayed as the source of
temptation and backsliding in C.S. Lewis’ <i>Screwtape Letters. </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Nor is the Satan </span>God’s evil
antagonist, as described in Christian theology. Like the tempter in
Jesus’ wilderness experience, Job’s Satan seeks <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to find out if our faith is authentic.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2678482213828648107#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a><br />
<br />
The friends of Job: “Wise men” – each of these characters is a foreigner
from places known for wisdom in the Near East during ancient Israel.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2678482213828648107#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a><br />
<br />
The story of Job is dealing with the reality of suffering and how to explain
it or understand it. The friends of Job move around the questions and attempt
to answer them from their own traditional belief in a God who rewards people
for what they have done “right” and punishes people for what they have done “wrong.”<br />
Job however raises a deeper question than right or wrong cause and effect. Job
ponders the despair that accompanies suffering; especially the sense that God
is absent in the presence of suffering which heightens the despair.<br />
<br />
Job wonders, “What kind of a God is this God who in the face of suffering is
nowhere to be seen?<br />
The story of Job pushes us to explore the reality that God is in the midst
of our suffering even when we have no idea how or where God is. Job meets God
in a whirlwind – <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which suggests that in the
very midst of our deepest despair God is there. God is a bigger God than the
one Job’s friends portray – God is less concerned with punishment and reward
and more concerned with being present in the center of the storm and working
with us to transform suffering, through hope and grace and mercy, into some
form of new life. <br />
In this regard, transforming suffering into hope and new life, the story of
Job mirrors the Christian story of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>what
God is doing in and through Jesus. It’s the hope, grace, and mercy that the
Eucharist points us toward. God is present in our suffering and leads us
through it into a new place.<br />
<br />
The thing is, as Job portrays, it isn’t always possible to know how God is
with us. There are no obvious signs, like the whirlwind of cloud and dust nor
do we hear the voice of God like Job did. Life does not always have a complete
restoration of what was lost. A loved one who has died does not come back to
life. Sometimes life just brings more suffering.<br />
<br />
So the story of Job is a myth for the process of suffering in which we
experience the absence and silence of God. The struggle is in part, how to
remain faithful while moving through the suffering to a new place. The new
place one experiences is usually the result of an inner transformation –
something inside of us changes and thus the way we perceive the situation
changes.<br />
<br />
Richard Rohr in his book Job and the Mystery of Suffering addresses this
when he suggests that the verb used to describe Job as repenting IN sack cloth
and ashes may also be interpreted as Job repenting FROM sack cloth and ashes –
in other words Job transforms internally and changes his outward action – he no
longer sits as a passive victim consumed by anger and stifled by frustration
but becomes someone who is working to move through his suffering into a new
place.<br />
<br />
The book we read in Lent, Speaking of Sin by Barbara Brown Taylor, discusses
the merits of acknowledging that there is real evil in the world, sin happens,
there are consequences, but sometimes those consequences are not obvious
because they affect other people more than ourselves. This is the global sin
that Mark makes reference too in the Gospel – sin that comes from how one
segment of society lives and how that lifestyle impacts others – so for
example, the coffee we drink can either sustain coffee farmers – if its Fair
Trade - or deprive them of living wage. The cell phones and tablets and iPads
and ebooks that we use are sometimes made by people working in substandard
conditions, sweat shops, earning something less than a living wage.<br />
<br />
Job reminds us that our suffering and the suffering of others is not a
punishment that God deals out, but is part of life. Sometimes stuff happens.<br />
<br />
The Gospel pushes around the idea that stuff happens, suggesting that
sometimes the suffering of the world may in fact be the consequence of how we
are living.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either way we are not to be passive
victims of our own suffering nor impassionate disinterested passersby of the
suffering of others.<br />
<br />
Our reading from Hebrews reminds us that what we do matters. Can we summon
up hope in the midst of suffering? Or at the very least can we muster the hope
for hope? Can we come to a place of inner peace in the midst of suffering? Can
we recognize the suffering of others and how our lifestyle might be
contributing to that suffering?<br />
<br />
There is beauty in this broken world and beauty in our broken lives. The
task of being a person of faith is to trust that. And in time, as we move through
our suffering, we will be able to recognize that beauty, claim, and proclaim it
as the grace and mercy of an ever present God. <br />
<br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2678482213828648107#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a>
Bruce Epperly at Process and Faith Blog: <a href="http://processandfaith.org/resources/lectionary-commentary/yearb/2012-10-14/proper-23">http://processandfaith.org/resources/lectionary-commentary/yearb/2012-10-14/proper-23</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2678482213828648107#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a>
The Interpreter’s One-Volume Commentary on the Bible: Abingdon Press, 1971</div>
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</div>
<br />Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-53511701414515702722012-09-29T12:15:00.001-07:002012-09-29T12:15:13.017-07:00Proper 21B<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">A reflection on the readings for Pentecost 18B By the Rev. Dr. Kate
Hennessy-Keimig</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
been blessed by two vocations, priest, and my full-time “day job” as a
psychotherapist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In both of these, I
have had the opportunity through the years to learn amazing things about how
humans function, how underneath it all we are so much more alike than we are
different, and in reflecting on both the readings from Numbers and Mark, I had
the additional thought that….that apparently we have not changed in some rather
fundamental ways over the last few thousand years.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The people God redeemed from slavery in Egypt
had made a covenant with the Lord at Sinai. They have set off on the long
journey to the land that God has promised, and things are not going well. </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have left behind the known and
familiar, as oppressive as it might have been. The future is uncertain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are anxious and fearful. And in their
memories of their “old life” in Egypt, they fondly remember the good things, </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We ate fish in Egypt—and got it free!—to say nothing of the
cucumbers and melons, the leeks and onions and garlic. But nothing tastes good
out here; all we get is manna, manna, manna.” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
people Jesus called to be his disciples have been traveling with Jesus for the
better part of three years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Living with
him day by day, listening, watching, learning who he is and who they are called
to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And lately, things have not been
going well. They have been faced with the mind-boggling news that he is NOT the
kind of Messiah that anyone really expected him to be, he has told them about
his betrayal, death and resurrection. Any certainly that they might have felt
about the future seems to be gone, they are anxious and uncertain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in response they have struggled among
themselves, getting attached to position and pecking order, having an argument
among themselves as to who was the “best disciple,” and then calling out
someone else to Jesus, </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">"Teacher,
we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him,
because he was not following us."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sometimes I wonder what Jesus thought
sometimes as he listened to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If he
wondered just what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">would</i> become of
them; if he got angry and frustrated like the Yahweh portrayed in the first
lesson. His words in today’s Gospel might suggest that at the very least he
does not want their all-too-human struggles to get in the way of the big
picture here, warning in stern words of stumbling blocks and millstones;
cutting off feet and hands and tearing out eyes. Clearly this is strong
stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is Jesus speaking in 24
point bold type using language that is guaranteed to get our attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what, I wonder, is he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really </i>saying? What was Jesus, through
Mark, really trying to tell the disciples, the people of God who were the early
church and to us, the people of God here and now?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As I listen to my patients and reflect on
these readings, one of the things that occurred to me that seems to be one of
those great universals is our tendencies to get <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really, </i>really attached to things sometimes. The Israelites </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">became overly attached to their memories of the good old days. That<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>things perhaps never really were as they
remembered them didn’t really matter, it was their <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">attachment</i> </b>to them that
was the thing that caused the problem ; their <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">attachment </i></b>to how they
wanted it to be (“how it used to be”)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>that got in the way of gratitude for what was now before them. Their
loss of gratitude led them to further rebel against Moses and ultimately,
against God, leading to consequences that affected them and their children
through several generations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">It is clear that
disciples deeply loved Jesus. They cannot stand the idea that he will be taken
from them simply because they <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">do</b>
love him as rabbi and teacher and friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But they also had an idea about who he was and should be that came to
them through their own understanding in the culture and the scriptures and they
were attached to this idea as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
this idea is challenged, this is upsetting to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of this gives rise to the infighting and
finger-pointing that Jesus is responding to in his strongly worded comments,
that are ultimately, if we read closely…about attachments!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I think it’s safe
to say that most of us feel pretty closely attached to body parts…to our hands,
feet, eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The parts of us that enable
us to apprehend the world and navigate through it, indeed these things that can
help us do God’s work as God’s eyes and hands and feet in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, Jesus says, if these most useful things
become obstacles, if they get in the way of connection with God, especially for
one of the least or vulnerable ones …off they should go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I think it’s also
safe to say that many of us have some things that we feel pretty closely
attached to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in this case I’m not
really thinking about our stuff or our body parts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m thinking more about the beliefs and
values and attitudes we hold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
shoulds and shouldn’ts we have in life, the “rules of the game” as we see them.
Sometimes, like the Israelites and the disciples, we get attached to these
things because we are struggling and stressed and we just need something dear
and familiar to hang on to…and that comfortable, familiar “way we have always
done things,” or safe corner of knowing that “this is simply the ways things
are and there can be no discussion” we can retreat to can provide that. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Sometimes we get
attached to our thoughts and beliefs and ideas simply because we are so very,
very passionate about something. And this is a good thing. It gets things done
and makes things happen, and generally makes the world a better place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, Jesus calls us to be salty people,
to stand up and take risks and let our voices be heard in defense of the
outcast and weak and the powerless. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, Jesus also says, be peacemakers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So then…what if our attachments to a thought,
a belief, an opinion, a way of doing something becomes an obstacle to another
finding a way to God, a way to being in community with us…what then? What if
our attachment to speaking our truth keeps us from deeply listening to and
hearing other voices? What if our attachment to the way we see the world keeps
us from seeing another, from considering them, from connecting with them, from
loving them? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">So many of us
define our lives as Christians by our passions and beliefs and strong
voices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We strive to create churches
that are welcoming places to the poor and the disenfranchised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have absolutely no doubt that people who
might struggle to feel comfortable in many places would find open doors and
open hearts in our communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet
I wonder….are there those who would find obstacles in these places to God’s
love? Are there stumbling blocks we place before others, unknowingly,
enthusiastically and with the best of intent that would be obstacles to them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there something we are attached to….words,
attitudes, beliefs or ways of being that might cause anyone to feel less than
welcomed, less than loved, or just “less than” that we might need to
change?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are there things we need to do
to balance our saltiness with our peace that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">all </b>may truly find welcome among us? </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-73369715069120857052012-09-22T14:37:00.001-07:002012-09-22T14:37:21.290-07:00Welcoming the Child<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">A reflection on the readings for Proper 20B: Mark 9:30-37 By Janine Goodwin</span></span></h2>
<div>
<i>
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want
anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to
them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will
kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But
they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. </i><br />
<br />
<i>Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he
asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were
silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the
greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever
wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a
little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said
to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and
whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” </i><br />
<br />
</div>
Welcoming the child<br /><br />Welcome not the sentimental idea of the child, but the real child:<br /><br />yes, the wanted and loved child<br />who can nevertheless be difficult enough,<br /><br />and also<br /><br />the child who was not wanted<br />
who was fed drugs or alcohol or both in the womb<br />the child who is not loved<br />the child who is beaten<br />or used<br />or worked beyond her years<br />the child who is trafficked<br />or simply abandoned<br />the child who, because of all these things,<br />
is angry<br />is frightened <br />is not able to trust<br />whose creativity has turned toward hurting others<br />or hurting himself<br /><br />or the child who is disabled,<br />who will not live out anyone's dreams of achievement<br />
whose future depends <br />on a safety net<br />that thins and tears year by year<br /><br />the child who is not fed<br />who is not clothed<br />who is not housed<br />who is not healed<br /><br />do we welcome that child?<br /><br />Do we work to give that child what he needs?<br />
Do we treat her as though we welcomed Jesus through her?<br /><br />Dare we be last, and servant of all, <br />and the follower of the one who knows<br />that his love will lead him<br />to be killed<br />by the powers that be?Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-69234484114109370542012-09-15T14:36:00.001-07:002012-09-15T14:37:52.100-07:00Proper 19B<i>I read this poem via TEXTWEEK from the Church of Scotland liturgy pages. I was so moved by it, that I wanted to share this with the blog. I will be using it as part of my sermon tomorrow. - submitted by the Rev. Karla J. Miller<br /><br />The Church of Scotland: Mission and Discipleship Council.<br />16 September 2012 Pentecost+16</i><br /><br />If you want to witness to who Jesus is, listen to who Jesus says you are.<br />You are the light for the world,<br />the defiance of the darkness;<br />when the world remains silent,<br />you are the voice that still speaks. When the world says “a fairer world”, you are the pressure that remembers.<br />This is who Jesus says you are in the world. The irritation.<br />...<br />if you want to witness to who Jesus is, listen to who Jesus says you are.<br />You are the challenge to the status quo, the salt in the wound:<br />when the world says “go to war”,<br />you are the protest;<br />when the world says, “everyone has a fair chance” you are the laughter.<br />This is who Jesus says you are in the world: the contradiction.<br />....<br />If you want to witness to who Jesus is, listen to who Jesus says YOU are.<br />You are the voice of dissent,<br />the truth amid the propaganda.<br />When the world says, “be beautiful”,<br />you are the brokenness.<br />When the world fills its belly,<br />you are the hunger.<br />This is who Jesus says you are in the world: the aggravation.<br />If you want to witness to who Jesus is, listen to who Jesus says YOU are.<br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br /><br />Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971931882147165593.post-62115910636957966992012-09-09T17:48:00.003-07:002012-09-09T17:48:28.905-07:00Proper 18B: Be Opened<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
reflection inspired by the readings of Proper 18(B), by The Reverend Anne
Fraley.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">They
brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged
him to lay his hand on him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He took him
aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and
he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said
to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And immediately his ears were opened, his
tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no
one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They
were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he
even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak." (Mark 7:32-37)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
Ephphatha. Be opened. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
Not a command, not a plea. Jesus’
words to release the deaf man from silence are spoken softly and without
urgency. They are enough to crack open a new world not only for this deaf and
ineloquent man, but for those who witness the miracle of his restoration as
well.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
It is both a joyous and frightening
turn of events. The isolation of silence has been ripped away, ushering new
life into a once-comfortable—if constrained—means of existence. We take for
granted the sounds of life. How often do we stop to consider that the chatter
of voices signifies access to a community, even if they are strangers? Do we
hear in the wind that wraps around objects in its way the mystery of God’s
movement? All manner of sound carries significance for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
We likewise undervalue the tools of
communication available to us through words and voice. The words we choose and
the speed and emphasis with which we deliver them are as varied in number as
the stars above us. The possibilities to convey the songs of our hearts and
depth of our thoughts are infinite. Denied to this man for so long, the
opportunities now available to him are no doubt at once exciting and
overwhelming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was old has been made
new again, and layers of meaning and nuance ripple from the mouths of others to
tender, receiving ears. The sound of a loved one’s voice, once imagined and
shaped by the receiver, may now seem grating and out of place. The work of
integrating two realities lies before the one who has received a blessing.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
How odd this may seem to us, even
as we appreciate the raw truth of the experience. More startling, perhaps, is
to recognize that we all live this paradox daily in a world full of conflicting
values and agendas, especially as we endure a toxic political season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In these bitter months approaching an
important election, I strive to listen to those with whom I disagree to
understand how they come to hold the point of view to which they cling so
fiercely. When those views are held rationally rather than strapped on with
fear and ignorance, I am challenged to hold in tension opposing and legitimate perspectives.
It’s not a comfortable place to be, often, and the effort to live with that
discomfort can be exhausting.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
Harder still is enduring the
excessive presence of irrationality, fear, hatred and ignorance that surrounds
us. We want to shake loose the known falsehoods worn like badges of honor to
allow the light of truth to penetrate the dangerous layers some people wrap
around themselves as apparent protection. And that is precisely what it is,
protection from the pain of reconciling what we think we know and believe with
what is revealed to us. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
The deaf man of this gospel hasn’t
known a life rich with sound, and the work of moving past his familiar
confinement to encounter that world, for better or worse, is daunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To engage the broader world requires
vulnerability unlike that which he has known in silence. Jesus has not only
opened his ears, but another part of his soul. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
It is risky for any of us to be
open to transformation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New life brings
blessing with it, but living into the fullness of that new life has its own
twists, turns and potential pitfalls. Too many shrink from the prospect of
God’s revelation in spite of the promise of his saving help and grace. For those
who stand before Christ and offer deafness to him, the blessing of having ears
to hear transcends the risk and we find ourselves in the presence of the Risen One.
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: 0in;">
And so I pray, for myself and all
who would entrust whatever part of our world is closed and silent, “Ephphatha.
Be opened.” </div>
Terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667178624061122421noreply@blogger.com1