onewhoponders

Daily Office Readings for Tuesday of Proper 12: Year 1

Morning, Psalms 61 and 62; Evening, Psalm 68:1-20(21-23)24-36;
2^nd Samuel 3:6 to 21; Acts 16:6 to 15; Mark 6:30 to 46:

“On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there:” (Acts 16:13).

Paul was in Philippi but apparently there was no synagogue. So Paul went outside the gate by the river.  I ponder about whether or not this was the normal custom that an Israelite, or Christian, or any traveling worshiper looking for his or her faith community might do if there was no designated place for prayer.

I feel like there is something wonderful about being outside in nature that provides a closeness to God. I especially connect with the Holy at the beach or in the mountains.  But I have also felt a closeness to God in open plains as well.  God is everywhere.  Buildings built especially for the purpose of drawing us into the spiritual sense sometimes fail.  We perhaps, maybe just need to get outside more often and save buildings for rainy days.  Our Lord Jesus performed most of his healing and teaching outside.  Every part of this earth is sacred and holds a spiritual conduit to God.

Lydia is a person to ponder. While she obviously has a spacious home, large enough to house Paul and his companions, However, she herself was outside for worship. She was a business woman and a prominent member of her community. But it seems that going down by the water to pray is as ancient a human calling as is keeping a fire going.  It sometimes can’t be explained, it just is.

Lastly, there is something else in the verse that I want to explore, or ponder about. When we read words like “When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And she prevailed upon us:” (Acts 16: 15) 

 I wonder who the “us” are that the writer is talking about?  We believe that it was Luke who wrote the Gospel named after him as well as the Acts of the Apostles.  Perhaps Luke is a hidden tag-a-long on Paul’s journeys.  He records everything but does not mention himself. For me, this is another lesson in the humility of invisibility. I am learning that I don’t need to be the center of things and certainly should not bring attention to myself for some kind of human credit. The only credit we should care about is how God sees the love in our hearts.

Today our Church remembers Joseph of Arimathea who gave his own burial place to Jesus after Jesus’ death on the cross.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, 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 Proper12: Year 1

Morning, Psalms 56 and 57, ; Evening, Psalms 64 and 65;
2^nd  Samuel 2:1 to 11; Acts 15:36 to 16:5; Mark 6:14 to 29:

“The disagreement became so sharp that they parted company; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and set out, the believers commending him to the grace of the Lord:” (Acts 15: 39 and 40).

Splitting in the Christian Church is as old as the Church is.  There is a little evidence of this at the Resurrection of our Lord when Thomas was not with the eleven and had to be told that they had seen the Risen Jesus. If we look closely we can see a little divisiveness in many places.

As our Church grew it split more and more. I have traced the thread that leads to the Episcopal Church of the United States today.  Our church starts at the foot of the Cross. From there it moves to Rome. But some who doubted that path never made it to Rome but rather went to Egypt, Asia, and other places. 

From the Church in Rome came the Western and Eastern Churches. From the Western Church came the Roman Catholic Church and from this Church came the Church of England. From the Church of England came the Episcopal Church of the United States of America.

Even our Episcopal Church has had a split as those of us who opposed the leadership of women; and also could not accept the full embrace of our brothers and sisters whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual, felt that they could no longer worship with us.

Many of our splits are not well thought out.  While it sounds old fashioned to say “What would Jesus do?” there is truth in it.  Any step away that encourages us not to love another is not Christ-like. Women had leadership positions with Jesus and we have no language from Jesus regarding homosexual rejection.  I feel like, sadly, we look for reasons (any reason), to separate from the main body of Christ. 

My hope and prayer is that at some level, no matter how small, we began the process of coming back together. It may take another thousand years or more. But I would like to see a Christian body reject the notion of splitting because something didn’t go their way. I would like to see something like a Lutheran, Methodist, and/or Episcopal merger. Wow! This would reverse what Paul and Barnabas did 2000 years ago.  If we could let our love of Jesus hold us together regardless of our selfish desires for the path of the Church, we would indeed be more Christ-like.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, 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

New Testament Eucharistic Readings for Sunday of Proper 12: Year A

Romans 8:26 to 39; Matthew 13:31 to 33 and 44 to 52:

“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matthew 13: 51 – 52)

Leading up to the part where our Lord Jesus asks if the disciples “understood all this,” is a series of “The kingdom of heaven is like,” statements. These similes are all intended to show both the growth-effect of the kingdom of heaven, (something old), and that the heart of a person’s greatest desire, can be accomplished (something new). 

The mustard seed grows to be the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.  The Israelites have been scattered and twice caught in bondage but in spite of all this they grew and grew. They overcame their captors with God’s help and were freed. They became the foundational tree of a One God theology where all the peoples of the earth could find comfort in its branches.

When Jesus gave us the Commandment to first love God and then to love our neighbors as ourselves, he established for us what ought to be our greatest desire. Finding our love for God is like finding a treasure hidden in a field, something for which we should be most happy to sell everything we have in order to have it. Again, finding our love for God is like finding fine pearls and again selling all that we have to have them. Truly loving God is total and complete happiness. It is when we love God with all that we are that we can then love our neighbors. It does not work when trying to love neighbor or even family before loving God.  Love God first, then it works.

The reward of our faith, and the growth of it, brings us both something new and something old.  But also, this is to reflect the, Torah (something old),  and the Christian Testament (something new), so when the disciples were asked if they understood all this, I doubt they really did.  I doubt most Christians today really understand all this. The important question is, my beloved of Christ, do you understand all this?

How does pondering your love for God cause a change in how you live your life?  How does understanding the Torah (that, that you hate, do not do to others) the Old; and the Christian Testament (do unto others as you would have them do onto you) the New, connect in you in your attitude towards others?  How do you bring these two of something old and something new together? Therefore, live your life as the scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, 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 of Proper 11: Year 1

Morning, Psalm 55; Evening, Psalms 138, and 139:1to 17;
2^nd  Samuel 1:1 to 16; Acts 15:22 to 35; Mark 6:1 to 13:

“He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him.  On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!  Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him.” (Mark 6: 1 to 3)

This hometown response to the works of our Lord Jesus comes to us from the Gospel accounts frequently. This lesson reminds us that God can, and does, work through anyone. It should be understood by Christians today that this was not just anyone, it was God Incarnate, our Lord God in the flesh of Jesus.

But we must also understand that God can bring us a message through the lips of anyone.  The person delivering you the message may not even be aware of the content of the message.  But it will hit home with you.  Just because you know a person, and the family they come from, or how poorly they did in school, does not mean that God can’t use them for your good and the good of your community.

When we refuse to listen to what God is bringing us because of who is bringing it, we are saying that God is not able to use such a person for good use.  I recall the little story of Jonah.  Jonah did not want to do anything to help Nineveh.  He did not like them. But God loved them. So, when Jonah finally gave in and, (I think), half heartedly delivered the message of repentance, the people of Nineveh listened and repented despite the message coming from someone that they knew didn’t care for them. We can never guess who God will use for our own good.

Because the people of Nazareth knew the returning Jesus, and his family who were still among them, they made the hasty decision that he can’t be all that special.  They didn’t consider what God might be doing.  Let us not fall in the same way. Let us keep an open heart and an open mind and be accepting and thankful for any good coming from anyone.  All good comes from God regardless of who delivers it.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, 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 Reading for Friday of Proper 11: Year 1

Morning, Psalms 40 and 54; Evening, Psalm 51;
 1^st Samuel 31:1 to 13; Acts 15:12 to 21; Mark 5:21 to 43:

“Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well:” (Mark 5:25 to 28).

In this Gospel account our Lord Jesus is on his way to attend to the daughter of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. While in route a woman of strong faith who has been suffering for a long time applied her faith to the healing goodness of Jesus and was healed even without him being aware. We can do the same. The healing goodness of Jesus is available to all of us still today. I have learned to call this incidental healing an unexpected opportunity. Most of us are busy. But let’s not be too busy to stop and help someone if we can.

 After healing the woman, Jesus makes his way to the home of Jairus where doubters are poisoning the minds of others with their unbelief. “But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe:” (Mark 5: 36).  Belief was what worked for the woman who was hemorrhaging.  For extra faith-power Jesus took with him his own trusted believers. “He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James:” (Mark 5: 37).  I call these three his executive counsel.  These are the same three he takes with him on the Mount of Transfiguration and to other special occasions. With this added faith, he cures the little girl. Faith is the most powerful healing tool we have access to.  We just need to use it more.  Jesus even heals on the Sabbath.  And while this occasion was not on the Sabbath, he is known to do so.

Before I close I feel the need once again to remind us about the importance of the Sabbath (Saturday).  We Christians rightly worship on the First Day of the Week (Sunday) in remembrance of the Resurrection. However, our Lord Jesus never removed the Seventh Day (Saturday) as the Sabbath, a gift from God for us to take seriously as a gift of rest. I will again share with you a YouTube download about the Sabbath which features some words from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in his book The Sabbath, whom I learned of while mentoring Education for Ministry. I am Christian forever, but I also remember our Christian Hebrew roots and honor what I believe is God’s command to remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy.

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

 “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

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 Proper 11: Year 1

Morning, Psalm 50; Evening,  Psalms  8 and 84;
 1^st Samuel 28:3 to 20; Acts 15:1 to 11; Mark 5:1 to 20:

“Moreover, the Lord will give Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me;”  (1^st Samuel 28:19).

Samuel has died. But the spirit of Samuel has been brought to the presence of Saul by a medium.  This is a Hebrew (Old) Testament acknowledgement that there is at least some sort of spiritual existence after death.  Now, Saul has been told that he and his sons will join him (Samuel) in this form of life on the next day.

My beloved of the Lord, all of us will be raised before the great throne, believers and non believers alike.  The biggest concern we should have is “what happens next?” 

Because we will be raised to some new form of awareness does not mean that we will absolutely remain that way for all eternity.  There will be judgment. Saul is discovering this in the scripture. You and I are also learning this now.  We, each of us, have the living responsibility now to live our lives to the best of our moral ability. We do this best by making for ourselves a “Rule of life.”

My personal creed or rule of life is stated thus: “I Trust in the Creating Word through the Holy Spirit of the Incarnate Word, in whom we live and move and love and have our being, and to whom we must give an account.”  I had to work in the words, “must give and account” part. Everything in scripture leads me to believe that there will be a resurrection for each of us and there will be  judgment for us in our resurrection.  We should make it easy on ourselves now while still in this life.  The old saying still holds true, “Forewarned is forearmed.” 

Saul and his sons are joining Samuel in death with short notice.  But I’m here to tell you all, that this very night is not promised to us. We know not when our mortality is required of us. The time to start getting ready was yesterday, but today is not too late. We want our mortality to become our immortality. And through our Lord Jesus it can happen. We however must do our part with Christ.

I know it sounds corny, but the one way to begin a change in our lives is to strive to love others as best we can.  This was hard for Saul.  He was jealous of David and jealous of how much the people loved David. Only near the end of his life did he come to terms with his shortcomings. But I suppose that’s better than never.  Are you jealous of anyone?  Is there anything in your heart pushing love out?  It’s not too late to change. If we need anyone to come back from the dead as did Saul, then we have our Lord Jesus who did it for our sake. Thank You Lord Jesus.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, 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 Proper 11: Year 1

Morning, Psalm 119:49 to 72; Evening, Psalm 49;
 1^st Samuel 25:23 to 44; Acts 14:19 to 28; Mark 4:35 to 41:

“He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4: 39 and 40)

As one who ponders, I ponder about what “rebuking” language our Lord Jesus might have used to still the wind and the sea. Did the writers of our Gospel put human, regional words in the divine mouth of God Incarnate so as to make it more palatable for us?  Remember that our Lord Jesus spoke in Aramaic.  This was translated into Greek as originally written in our New Testament, and then later the Greek into Latin, and the Latin into the tongues of various peoples across the known world.  How much was lost? How much was miss-translated? How much was added to make it more palatable?

Our Lord Jesus being fully God and fully human only has to wish it done, and it is done. Of all in creation, humanity is the only being that God attempts to reason with.  We are the only ones who God tries to appeal to, to reckon with. And for us, and for our sakes, our Lord Jesus does indeed use our words when speaking directly to us. I’m still curious about how God addresses creation outside of humanity.

God could have made us as subservient as the wind and the sea and all others in creation. But obedience then would not have been our choice so much as a God-given instinct. But we have autonomy and in our autonomy a little piece of God dwells in us.  God wants to see how that little piece of God in us makes us different from all else in creation, and hopefully, in a good and loving way.

That little piece of God in us is what we English speakers call faith. (I invite non English speakers to examine their own word for faith). Why then do we too often fear one another and other forms of existence in creation? We, all humanity, are connected through the divine Presence of God that dwells in us.  And nothing, within, or outside of humanity, can separate us from the love of God. We are God’s own, in this world, and with faith, in the next world as well. This is why our frustrated Lord Jesus asks, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, 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 Proper 11: Year 1

Morning,  Psalm 45; Evening,  Psalms 47 and 48;
 1^st Samuel 25:1 to 22; Acts 14:1 to 18; Mark 4:21 to 34:

“And when an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to maltreat them and to stone them, the apostles learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country; and there they continued proclaiming the good news:” (Acts 14:5 to 7).

Normally I am not one to be scared off when the going gets rough. But maybe, this is God’s way of getting the Word of God to more, and different places.  Sometimes we just have to move on. Perhaps it’s a way of “shaking the dust off your shoes as a testimony against them.”

There are several places in the Bible where God believing people have had to flee only to continue in the faith.   Moses, David, Elijah, Paul and others have had to relocate in order to perpetuate the word.

In more near modern times, The Amish of Europe were all but exterminated. But they fled to America and even then had to settle in Pennsylvania in order to continue in their faith. Sometimes we have to choose to run away in order to live and teach another day,

So it’s not a matter of being scared off.  It is more a matter of recognizing that the current people around you are not ready to receive the Good News. But God knows that there are people very near you who long for sustaining words. We just have to keep moving. We are not to give up, or give in.  We are to move on.

Such moving on is not always a physical location.  In our time of “E” relationships, moving on could just be a matter of deselecting one group and selecting another. In this blog I have reached people all over the globe who have selected me.  My words do not always fall on ears of welcome. But again, I’m not scared off, I just knock the dust off and keep sharing. Somewhere, someone is moved by the words that God is speaking through me.

I receive God’s words as words of love and inclusion. I also know when God holds me in silence because the words that come to me are not God’s but mine. It is perhaps more important today in our “E” community to discern what is from God and what is not, before one hits the send, or publish button. I strive to be one of the communicating saints of God and I invite all the selfless saints to be filled with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and join me in spreading the Word to all who are longing for it.  It is so much easier today to just move on if there is no love found in a few for what God is trying to do through you.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, 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 Proper 11: Year 1

Morning, Psalms 41 and 52; Evening, Psalm 44;
1^st Samuel 24:1 to 22; Acts 13:44 to 52; Mark 4:1 to 20:

“Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land:” (Mark 4: 1)

These teachable moments in the Bible are staying with me a little longer. I am starting to look at stories that are acts of teaching that I really didn’t see before.  David teaches Saul in our 1^st Samuel lesson today.

David says to Saul, “This very day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you into my hand in the cave; and some urged me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, “I will not raise my hand against my lord; for he is the Lord’s anointed:” (1^st Samuel 24:10). David is showing Saul how important he, (Saul) is, because beside his faults, he was anointed by the Lord. The lesson here is to respect what the Lord has done even if you find it troubling in your life. There is also some responsibility for us who want to learn.

Saul reasons that David is the better person and a wise teacher. And he concedes, “When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, ‘Is that your voice, my son David?’ Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, ‘You are more righteous than I; for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. Today you have explained how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. For who has ever found an enemy, and sent the enemy safely away? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day:” (1^st Samuel 24:16 to 19). Of course, the lesson here for all who are serious about their faith is not to return evil for evil. We are taught by a just God that we are better than that.

So my lens now is looking at my faith tradition, and scripture in particular, as it tries to teach us valuable lessons about how we are to live today.  These teachings are timeless. They apply to us today. Our Lord Jesus taught from a boat to people more starved for Godly guidance than for bread. We have people around us today who are also starved for Godly guidance. You are their teachers. The lesson that Jesus teaches the teacher is to place yourself in such a way so as to reach as many as possible.  And then teach with compassion.  The people listening are like sheep without a shepherd.  You, my beloved in the Lord, are their teaching shepherds. Love them and teach them.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, 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

New Testament Eucharistic Readings for Sunday of Proper 11: Year A

Romans 8:12 to 25; Matthew 13:24 to 30 and 36 to 43:

“Jesus put before the crowd another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.” (Matthew 13: 24 – 26)

We are not able to tell the weeds from the wheat until we see the grain.  How do we know the weeds? By the waste or sin produced. We can see such acts as identity theft and robbery as sinful but it is sinful with a self-serving purpose. This doesn’t make it acceptable or in any way tolerable.

But there is also a senseless, and even more shameful kind of weed that is just evil for evil’s sake.  There is the mild sort of evil like computer hacking without a buyback, where no one profits from the frustration encountered.  I have heard of acts like taping razor blades to gas pump handles just to cause random injury to unknown victims. Acts like poisoning produce at a store or market so unknown persons fall victim to this evil. These are weeds sown within the wheat.  These are purely evil acts against our neighbors for the sole purpose of harming just for the purpose of harming.  There may be some psychological psychosis at work. By psychosis I mean fixation, neurosis, phobia or obsession particularly aimed at antisocial behavior.

So why does evil exist?  Some say evil is the work of the devil; perhaps. Personally, I think it is more the product of a psychosis focused on hurtful, and often, hateful outcomes that lack any sense of love.  I might even suggest that evil happens in the absence of love.  But love doesn’t just happen, my beloved of the Lord, it is taught.

People, who are loved, tend to love others.  People, who are resented, sadly, tend to resent others. This does not happen all the time, but it happens enough to cause senseless harm.  Maybe the psychosis of evil will show some chemical imbalance as a probable cause. In such cases, a medicinal approach may help resolve the antisocial behavior. Whatever the cause, evil acts are among us. So when the plants came up and bore grain, “then the weeds appeared as well.”  We can’t deny it. Nor should we want to.   Our response to such acts, when we see them, is to not let us cause a retaliatory, evil for evil.  But rather, let us use the abundance of love that we have been taught, to overcome such acts. Augustine of Hippo once said, (and I’m paraphrasing), “Do not think that God makes no use of evil.  Evil has one of two purposes. One, that it might lure you to itself if your love is weak.  The second is that you might cause an evil person to step into the light of love and goodness.” According to Augustine, God doesn’t cause evil, but will observe its affect. Be steadfast therefore my beloved, in doing good, and resist evil in any of its manifestations.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, 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