Author: John Thomas Frazier

Daily Office Readings for Wednesday of the 2^nd Week of Lent: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 72; Evening, Psalm 119:73 to 96;

Genesis 42:18 to 28; 1^st Corinthians 5:9 to 6:8; Mark 4:1 to 20:

“Do you not know that we are to judge angels—to say nothing of ordinary matters? If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church?” (1 Corinthians 6: 3 – 4)

I believe that people who are regular church attendees make the best police persons, military personal, and lawyers and judges. There should always be some kind of community moral compass in place and activated in such work as police, military and the judicial system. 

Humane treatment and decency should always be at the forefront of all public service or conflict. People that do such work should come from a community of faith. I don’t believe such a faith community has to be Christian.  But it should be a community whose beliefs recognize the godly value of all people regardless of ethnicity, religion, nationality, language, or sexual orientation.  Yes, we must appoint or elect judges to make decisions about how to proceed in terms of what to do about offenders. However, compassion must be given to people, even those who themselves show no compassion. Being tough on crime does not mean being hateful to those who are different or who have made mistakes or even those who show no desire to improve.

Preachers or priests, or imams, or rabbis, must be mindful of the message they plant in the hearts of their listeners, from whom such public servants are called.  We all have the same loving God.  We have found different ways to relate to and worship God.  But just as we look up to God, we must also look to our right and left at our neighbor and remember to love them through this same God. I agree with Saint Paul, I think our judges (and other public service providers and military) should come from people who have an understanding of some kind of loving worship community. The religious leaders who plant the seeds of morality have a huge responsibility for making sure such seeds are loving and inclusive.

Today we remember Anna Julia Haywood Cooper; Educator (1859 to 1965).  Her story can be found at Anna Julia Hayward Cooper (satucket.com).  Her story really speaks to the need for people to have a moral and spiritual integrity. “Anna Julia was an academically gifted child and received a scholarship to attend St. Augustine Normal School and Collegiate Institute, a school founded by the Episcopal Church to educate African-American teachers and clergy.” (borrowed from the site above).  This part saddens me knowing that St Augustine just lost its accreditation.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools, including St Augustine.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Tuesday of the 2^nd Week of Lent: Year 2

Morning, Psalms 61 and 62; Evening,  Psalm 68:

Genesis 42:1 to 17; 1^st Corinthians 5:1 to 8; Mark 3:19b to 35:

“And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35)

Our Lord Jesus is saying that those who come to God in the way he does are also his family.  I have a huge biological family in Tennessee but life paths and vocational calls have pulled me away from my Tennessee roots. One such vocational call is the Church.

It’s Church.  I have friends here in North Carolina who are not members of my Church; some are not members of any church, but I still accept them as friends.  My Church family however shares with me our understanding of God in our lives and the lives of our collective community.  For me, the good news about our Church is that we love providing Christian hospitality to all people.  Yes, there may be individuals who some of us may have a problem with, but for the most part, all are welcome.  We don’t care about what others believe or don’t believe. Our Baptismal Covenant requires us to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves and to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being:” (BCP 305). To all this (and more), we answer “I will with God’s help.” 

My Pondering is from the Episcopal Church perspective.  I don’t apologize for that.  I have found spiritual family in this Church.  Our current Presiding Bishop, The Most Reverend Michael Curry, says that “we are the Episcopal path of the Jesus movement.” There are many paths but this path best suits me. I believe everybody should have a worship family of some kind.  Even if you say you believe in little green frogs, fine, but if you do, you should be found down by the pond every now and then.

Today our Church remembers George Herbert: priest and poet (1633)  He is one of my spiritual heroes and someone I try to emulate. You can find him at George Herbert (satucket.com).

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Monday of the 2^nd Week of Lent: Year 2

Morning, Psalms 56 and 57; Evening,  Psalms 64 and 65;
Genesis 41:46 to 57; 1^st Corinthians 4:8 to 20(21); Mark 3:7 to19a

“Have mercy on me, O God, for my enemies are hounding me; all day long they assault and oppress me.”  (Psalm 56:1)

This Psalm, as does many of the Psalms of lament, ask for mercy from God. I especially ask for God’s mercy for Ukraine, her people now dispersed, and for the good Russian people who have protested against the criminality of their governmental leadership.

With things the way they are, the NATO nations not getting involved, only God and heaven above can help Ukraine now. However, they may do it through us. This kind of help can only come from the prayers of you and me and people all over the world, including the people within Russia,  Our prayers are for our God of mercy to sustain the Ukrainian resistance. It has been more than a year now.

I pray for God to intercede and turn their suffering into some kind of peace if not a distant joy.  How can they ever be happy again?  The first verse of Psalm 57, also for today, is likewise appropriate: “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful, for I have taken refuge in you; in the shadow of your wings will I take refuge until this time of trouble has gone by.” (Psalm 57:1)

So I pray that this time of trouble quickly goes by and peace and reconciliation is restored. I don’t know how this is done. I just pray that it gets done, and soon. Please come to their help O Lord. We, the world, will be looking and listening for your presence in this matter.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Gospel Reading for the Second Sunday of Lent: Year B

Mark 8: 31 to 38

“But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s purposes, but on man’s.” (Mark 8: 33)

This is a popular quote from the Gospel. It is often used when people sense that they are being tempted to do something immoral or selfish.

In this Gospel reading our Lord Jesus goes on to talk about putting others before self.  He talks about self-denial.  This is not self-denial in order to boast about it, but rather, it is the personal habit of ensuring your brothers and sisters have what they need as you trust that they are looking out after you and your needs as well. This then is harmonious living. It is living in love as God in Christ Jesus meant for us to have. It is God’s purpose for us.

Jesus is saying that if we live our lives in loving care for others, God will make sure our lives are not lost. God ensures that we who care for others before ourselves will be eternally in a place where all souls practice this way of everlasting life. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it:” (Mark 8: 35).

The lesson here is simple. God made us social creatures. He did not make us to be kings and queens over our brothers and sisters. Jesus came among us to model this equality dream and purpose of God for us. Even Jesus came among us to serve rather than to be served.

So yes, we must from time to time endure hardships. We will, in our Christian walk, be uncomfortable sometimes. But when it is suggested that we not experience a little hardship or discomfort to help those in need, we too must say, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s purposes, but on man’s.”

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Saturday after the First Sunday of Lent: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 55; Evening, Psalms 138 and 139:
Genesis 41:1 to 13; 1 Corinthians 4:1 to 7; Mark 2:23 to 3:6:

“Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath;” (Mark 2:27)

Most all Christians of today realize and understand that our Lord Jesus, as God Incarnate, came to us in the Hebrew (Jewish) culture. He lived and worshiped in that same tradition honoring its rich and God sanctioned rituals including Remembering the Sabbath Day and keeping it Holy as Commanded by God. Jesus never changed that.

Today most of the world recognizes Saturday as the seventh day of the week. The seventh day is still a Sabbath Day. As Christians we worship on the first day of the week, Sunday.  This is a human construct which I believe was created to again distinguish a difference between Christians and Jews. Why? We are Judea Christians.

As the elements of a worship service is work for those who organize and conduct it, I think it is good the worship on Sunday, it is, after all, work.  Abraham Joshua Heschel says in his book, Sabbath, the Sabbath is a gift from God and we should appreciate it and honor it.  So I don’t think even the work of worship should be done on the Sabbath. The Sabbath should be of day of comfort and meditation and perhaps some individual or small group reflective study or pondering.  

There is the reality that some of us will, out of human necessity, have to work. First responders, the military, police and medical staff, for example, must stay attentive to their duties on Saturdays. However, they should be afforded at least every other Sabbath for personal time with God.

And as far as we Christians are concerned, our Lord Jesus says in our Mark reading for today, “so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.’(Mark 2:28).

Today is our Sabbath gift from God. How are you using it?

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Friday after the First Sunday of Lent: Year 2

Morning, Psalms 40 and 54; Evening, Psalm 51;

Genesis 40:1 to 23; 1^st Corinthians 3:16 to 23; Mark 2:13 to 22:

“Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and peoplecame and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”  (Mark 2:18)

I can still remember my parents asking me if my friends went and jumped off a cliff, would I do it too?  Peer pressure and new fads and even old traditions sometimes should be called into question.

 Because “it has always been done that way” doesn’t mean it should always be done that way. Everybody does something a certain way and it becomes expected that all must do it the same way.  This moves into the food we eat, the clothes we ware, and all other social trends we are peered into. There is something to be said for “dare to be different.”  This is especially true if one has set down and really thought about habits and practices.  In our Episcopal Church, Holy Communion used to be a once or twice a month practice before the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. After that, and ever since, every Sunday is considered the Feast Day of our Lord.  Wasn’t it always?  In this Gospel reading, Levi (Matthew) is invited to “follow” Jesus.  He did.  He quit what he had always done to do the Lord’s work.  When opportunity knocks…

Enough cannot be said about pondering over decisions before acting.  Let us again review Blaise Pascal who said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”  I would say then, that after pondering over a practice (or anything), all activities around the practice may also have to change as well.  My ponderings and daily exercise program requires me to rise early in the morning.  Therefore I have had to adjust my sleep habits in order to accommodate this schedule.  In this same Gospel reading for today our Lord Jesus says, “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”  (Mark 2:22)  My new wine of blogging and working out would not work in the old wineskin of going to bed at 10 or 11 pm.

Today we remember Polycarp,  Bishop of Smyrna and martyr (February 23, 156)

 “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done” (Genesis 2:1 and 2). So, for this evening and tomorrow day my friends, Shabbat Shalom. 

What is Shabbat? Intro to the Jewish Sabbath – YouTube

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Palestine and our schools.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Thursday of the First Week of Lent: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 50; Evening, Psalms 19 and 46;

Genesis 39:1 to 23; 1^st Corinthians 2:14 to 3:15; Mark 2:1 to 12:

“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? (Mark 2: 9)

Even today, in most cases, medical science is not able to restore nerve tissue that would enable a paralyzed person to walk again when that nerve has been severed. So forgiving others, while not impossible, is the easier of the two.

Forgiveness should be taught in the family but often families will tend to see the incident as plain bad behavior, thus making forgiveness hard to come by. Forgiveness can be hard to come by internationally also. Sometimes cruelty can paralyze even nations who are crippled by their own ideas of what they think is “rightfully” theirs as in the Russia, Ukraine war.

Maybe forgiveness begins in the church with corporate pardon. A classic example of this is the Amish community of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and the milk truck driver attacking their school house. On 2 October 2006, 10 Amish girls were shot in their school house by Charles Carl Roberts IV who took hostages and shot eight out of ten girls (aged 6–13), killing five, before committing suicide in the schoolhouse.

Five died and five survived – and their families immediately bestowed their forgiveness.” Also, On the day of the shooting, a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls was heard warning some young relatives not to hate the killer, saying, “We must not think evil of this man.” Another Amish father noted, “He had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he’s standing before a just God. This story can be found at: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Nickel_Mines_School_shooting).  The point is, this Amish community is a Church that really practices what it means to forgive.

We should practice forgiveness at home, in church, in school, at work, nationally  and internationally. Perhaps it starts in our spiritual families. The continual reading, studying, discussing, and above all, praying and practicing forgiveness, will help all of us to at least look at the healing power of forgiveness. Maybe forgiveness of self is the first step to nerve regeneration. Maybe, just maybe, our Lord Jesus had it right all along, “Your sins are forgiven, stand up and take your mat and walk.”

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Wednesday of the First Week of Lent: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 119:49 to 72; Evening, Psalm 49;  

Genesis  37:25-36; 1st Corinthians 2:1 to 13; Mark 1:29 to 45:

“In the morning, while it was still very dark, he [Jesus] got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.”  (Mark 1:35)

Whether you believe our Lord Jesus is God Incarnate, or the Son of God apart from God, you must take note of Jesus’ life of prayer.  The praying referred to in the passage above is tucked between healings.  On one side, before he prayed, “he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons.” (Mark 1: 34)  On the other side, after he prayed, he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. (Mark 1: 39)  This work of healing and casting out demons was fortified by prayer. Prayer works people.

In these acts of prayer our Lord Jesus is teaching us the power of prayer as well as the importance of prayer. The Mystic, Evelyn Underhill, writes “We pray first because we believe something; perhaps at that stage a very crude or vague something.  And with the deepening of prayer, its patient cultivation, there comes – perhaps slowly, perhaps suddenly – the enrichment and enlargement of belief, as we enter into a first-hand communion with the Reality who is the object of our faith.” (Lent with Evelyn Underhill p.17; taken from The School of Charity)

You and I are products of God’s prayer.  God began creation by praying. “Let there be,” as witnessed in the opening of Genesis. With such words all creation was called into being.  The same “Word” that called all creation into being took on human form and dwelt among us. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” (John 1:1 to 3) 

Everything about us comes from prayer, God’s prayer. We are prayer.  Therefore we surely ought to be praying.  God still prays.  In fact, we never initiate prayer to God.  Given that God prays first, when we pray, we are always responding to God. This is true even when we think we are asking for something for the first time.  God is always ahead of us knowing our need before we ask.

As I truly believe this, I also believe God is the God of love and peace. I want us then to respond to God’s desire for human peace asking for an immediate end to all war in the world. This might require all believers to find a deserted place, even within our own homes, and there, pray for peace.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Tuesday of the First Week of Lent: Year2

 Morning, Psalm 45; Evening, Psalms 47 and 48:
Genesis 37:12-24; 1^st Corinthians 1:20 to 31; Mark 1:14 to 28:

“Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” (1^st Corinthians 1:26)

Paul must have been looking into the future and right at me when he wrote these words. In school, I was not wise by human standards, I am not powerful or of noble birth. And yet, I discern a real sense of God’s call on my life.

When I look at God’s call in the Bible I realize that there are certain characteristics that such a call consists of.  We have many calls from God in scripture: Deborah, Rebecca, Moses, Elijah, Amos, Mary, Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, and Paul, only to name a very few. There are many more in the Bible and a great many more beyond the Bible. God calls both male and female.  In every case, there are human risks involved, even human death.

God’s call is inconvenient, untimely, cost money, and is always for the benefit of others, not the one called. If you see these things in what you think you are called by God to do, then it really is from God.  But know this, You can’t really lose. God will keep you in eternity no matter what happens to you. God wins every time.

Today we remember Frederick Douglas, Social Reformer: 1895. You can read about Douglas at http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/frederick_douglass.htm

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Monday after the First Sunday of Lent: Year 2

Morning, Psalms 41 and  52; Evening,  Psalm 44;

Genesis 37:1 to 11; 1^st Corinthians 1:1 to 19; Mark 1:1 to 13:

“Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locust and wild honey.” (Mark 1:6)

Now the locust pods of which John ate were a pod-bearing tree of the family that includes the honey locust, swamp locust, and carob. Family: Leguminosae.  For many years I thought John was eating grass hoppers.  I used to love telling John the Baptist stories to children and hearing them say “yuk” at the thought of eating wild grass hoppers.  It wasn’t till I visited Israel that I learned that the locust pod with honey was what John was actually eating.  John was an outsider, and a vegetarian it seems.  He dressed rough even by the standards of his day.  What’s important about John the Baptist is that he emptied himself in order to create some space for what God wanted. A cup or a glass or a bowl is no good to us if it’s full.  Only an empty vessel is good for holding the food or drink we need.

There were so many people of human power in John’s day that were full of themselves. And God knows who is receptive to the Word of God. Listen to the opening of chapter 3 of Luke again: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”  (Luke 3: 1 – 2)

Notice that while so many were full of themselves with their human titles, John was away from all of that, living in the wilderness, free to go and announce the coming of our Lord Jesus.  The wilderness was not so far removed that the word of God could not reach him.  The same is true today.  Each, and every one of us should have some “alone” time.  Remember the quote from Blaise Pascal,   “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”  John sat quietly off to himself eating his sweet cereal and pondering about the Good News he was about to bring to the world, to us.  We must look past how his life was ended in human terms. We also must look beyond our own current wilderness and focus on the Good News from God.

Today let us remember Agnes Tsao Kou Ying, Agatha Lin Zhao, & Lucy Yi Zhenmei: Chinese Martyrs (satucket.com).  They, like John the Baptist, suffered for their faith.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John