onewhoponders

Daily Office Readings for Monday of Proper 5: Year 1

Morning, Psalms 56 and 57; Evening, Psalms 64 and 65;
Deuteronomy 30:1 to 10; 2^nd  Corinthians 10:1 to 18; Luke 18:31 to 43:

“As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.  When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening.  They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.’  Then he shouted, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’  Those who were in front sternly ordered him to be quiet; but he shouted even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’  Jesus stood still and ordered the man to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him,  ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ He said, ‘Lord, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.’  Immediately he regained his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it,  praised God.” (Luke 18:35 to 43)

Jesus had just finished telling the twelve about what was going to happen to him in Jerusalem but they couldn’t see it.  This blind man asked what was happening and when he heard that it was Jesus, saw very clearly what was good for him to do regardless of the pushback from the crowd.

The crowd tried to hold him back but he was persistent. “Have mercy on me.”  Often we are denied the call of our faith through pressure from our friends, (social media, virtual or face to face). We must learn about what is good for us. We must see clearly even before we are given our moral sight back.

Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”  What would you ask our Lord Jesus for if given the one opportunity?  The blind man in our passage for today just wants to be back where he was when he could see and know the difference between good and bad. He said, ‘Lord, let me see again.

Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight; your faith has saved you. Again, his cure was already in him just as ours is already in us, our faith. We must take our faith to the living Jesus who is waiting to do for us whatever we want. This blind man did and, “Immediately he regained his sight and followed him, glorifying God.”  I wish we had his name. Are you following our Lord Jesus? Do we have your name?

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

Eucharistic Readings for Sunday of Proper 5: Year A

Hosea 5:15-6:6; Psalm 50:7-15; Romans 4:13-25; Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

“Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up.”  (Hosea 6:1)

I searched diligently to find words in our Gospel reading that would capture both the beginning verses and the last verses.  I could not even use the middle (Matthew 9: 14 to 17), which is left for our own reading at home. It is about new wine in new wineskins. Basically, Jesus gives us the new interpretation of all the words written before he walked among us, which is The New Testament. And even though we, in many ways, have been misdirected, Jesus is our return to grace and love. Jesus meets the very author of this Gospel, Levi, or Matthew, and gives him the words we all need to hear, “Come and follow me.”  Matthew hears the invitation,  “Come, let us return to the Lord.”  And he leaves his tax collector booth and follows our Lord Jesus.

The second part of our Gospel follows the power of faith as it is witnessed by a synagogue official concerned about his daughter who has died, and a woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years. 

The synagogue official would be someone well versed in the Hebrew tradition and teachings. But faith in what he sees in our Lord Jesus makes him realize that Jesus is truly the summation of all he has learned. So he comes to Jesus in a desperate effort to restore his daughter.

The words “unexpected opportunities” come to my mind here. In our Cursillo Reunion group the question often asked is, “with what unexpected opportunities has the Lord accomplished through you?” This question has given me cause for concern.  If a situation is unexpected, meaning, we didn’t see it coming, how can it then be an opportunity?  But Jesus shows me, shows us, how we are to deal with unexpected opportunities. When a woman who has been bleeding for twelve years, and who has sought help from physicians to no avail, now places all her hopes on Jesus. While Jesus is focused on the synagogue leader’s daughter, he pauses to help in an unexpected opportunity. This woman needed Jesus. This faith of hers, makes her well. Jesus uses the faith in us to heal us.

The tax collector, the leader of the synagogue and the bleeding woman, as well as you and I, must see our life situation as fixable only through our Lord Jesus.  “Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up.” Perhaps this is new wine in new wineskins.

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 the Saturday of Proper 4: Year 1:

Morning, Psalm 55; Evening,  Psalms 138, and  139:1-17:
Deuteronomy 29:2 to 15; 2nd Corinthias 9:1to15; Luke 18:15 to 30

“You stand assembled today, all of you, before the Lord your God—the leaders of your tribes, your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your women, and the aliens who are in your camp, both those who cut your wood and those who draw your water— to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, sworn by an oath, which the Lord your God is making with you today; in order that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I am making this covenant, sworn by an oath, not only with you who stand here with us today before the Lord our God, but also with those who are not here with us today:” (Deuteronomy 29:10 to 15)

While this is a huge bite from Deuteronomy, it packs a lot to ponder. We Christians “stand here,” attending our Churches and at some point in the service, we recite our statement of belief, our Nicene Creed.  We have priests, we have our bishop, we have our Deacons for our Deaneries. In us you have the leaders of our tribe, the elders and officials of our faith in this Diocese.

As the Baptized, all of us, (lay and ordained), have entered into a covenant with God through our Lord Jesus.  We have those among us who are not as sold on our faith as we are.  And while they do not cut our wood and draw our water, they look to us whom they assume to be knowledgeable about Godly living. We have a responsibility of faithful leadership, Christian or not.

Here is an amazing thing. Moses says to the people and to us, that God says, “I am making this covenant, sworn by an oath, not only with you who stand here with us today before the Lord our God, but also with those who are not here with us today,” (Deuteronomy 29:14 and 15).  We are those of whom Moses speaks when he says, “those not (yet) here with us today.”  Moses reminds us of the promise, the covenant, that began with Abraham and is still our call today of a promised land. We are the honest pied pipers of those who believe, and those who say they do not believe. God wants all people in the courts of heaven. You and I are not to judge. We are called to listen, learn, love, live, and lead.  This is what Abraham did. This is what Moses did. And this is what we are also called to do. Lay or ordained, it makes no difference.  All that matters is love for God and our neighbor, all neighbors.

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 Friday of Proper 4: Year 1

 Morning, Psalms 40 and 54; Evening, Psalm 51;
Deuteronomy 26:1 to 11; 2^nd Corinthians 8:16 to 24; Luke 18:9 to 14:

“But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13)

In this Luke passage the Pharisee prays to God about how “blessed” he is, but then gives thanks that he is “better” than the tax collector.  Or, so he thinks.

Nobody volunteered to be a tax collector in the time of Jesus.  It was normally given to a male local who had no one to defend him like a working father or prominent family connections.  Rome was not going to make one of its Roman citizens collect the tax. No, it had to be done by a local. 

We should never think of ourselves as too good to do the services necessary for community life like trash collecting, volunteer fire fighter, and other vocations of service.  We, the community, still need people to pick up our garbage, our mail, and yes, still today, collect our fair share of tax.

We should not put anybody down and certainly not think of ourselves as better than, or less than, anybody else. In Jesus’ story about the Pharisee and the tax collector there is justification for the tax collector.  He humbled himself in articulating his short falls. We could learn from both in this passage.

First, we can learn from the Pharisee to be thankful for our ability to discipline ourselves to give in the Name of the Lord, but not to boast about it.  Second, we must remember that God loves all of us the same.  There are no favorite sons or daughters among us as far as God is concerned.  And lastly, in as much as God loves all of us the same, we too should strive to love all of us in the same way. If we see someone across the room whom we feel is not measuring up to some standard we have set for ourselves we should pray for them and ourselves in order that we might come to some sense of loving kindness – some sense of respecting the dignity of every human being.

We Anglicans use these words of the tax collector with our Anglican prayer beads as we repeat the words, “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner,” seven times and then the Lord’s prayer on a large bead as we pray our way around the beads. This too is a discipline and should not be boasted about.  Let us ponder about our discipline of humility and respect for the other during our Sabbath time.

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 4: Year 1

Morning, Psalm 50; Evening,  Psalms  8 and 84;
Deuteronomy 16:18 to 20 and 17:14 to 20; 2^nd Corinthians 8:1 to 16; Luke 18:1 to 8:

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses, what is man that you should be mindful of him? the son of man that you should seek him out?” (Psalm 8)

When I look up at night and gaze upon the stars and how even the planet we live on, revolves through space, I am amazed. The Great Creator of the universe is so awesome. We humans give created things names so that we might learn about them and pass such knowledge on to our children and our children’s children. As we do this we must also keep the Creator in the teaching. Without God there is nothing.

And then there is us, you and me.  Why would the Creator of all things and all life itself take notice of us?  We have come into being through the will and love of God.  And while all universal creation seems to keep to its designated assignments, we, the human being, seem to want to argue, fuss and fight rather than to move with grace as does the suns, moons, stars and other planets.

God even came to us as one of us to model for us how to live in peace and harmony.  Yet, we not only killed the Author of life, even our church has a history of killing others because of what they believe about our Lord – our Lord who would never kill anyone. We have enslaved our brothers and sisters, misused them, abused them; and yet, God is patient with us.

So why is God mindful of us?  I think there is still hope.  In spite of our sins, we are better than we used to be. Our Jewish ancestors developed a beautiful history of telling their story, their long relationship with God. We have it in the Hebrew (Old) Testament.  This is an example for us now.  Our Lord Jesus was very good at telling us the stories about His relationship with God.  We must follow this Jewish – Jesus example and tell our stories also, the good and the bad.

Since God has hope for us and is mindful of us, we must not give up on ourselves.  We must live the stories we want to tell. We may not look like heroes in our stories, we may not even live through them and the stories might have to be told by those who knew us. But it’s still our story. Our story must be about unwavering love, no matter what.  I really love Psalm 8. It makes me ponder and appreciate God in Christ Jesus even more. Don’t give up on us Dear Lord.

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 4: Year 1

Morning, Psalm 119:49 to 72; Evening, Psalm 49;
Deuteronomy 13:1 to 11; 2^nd  Corinthians 7:2 to 16; Luke 17:20 to 37:

“Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you:’” (Luke 17:20 and 21).

I think this is the greatest secret of all time; the kingdom of God is taking incremental steps more and more right here on earth, it is the evolution of the kingdom of heaven; it is “Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.”

We are not to wait until we get to heaven.  We are to bring heaven here. Yes, we have a long way to go. And this place can’t be heaven for some and not for others. We are already citizens of heaven but far too many of us have not been acting like it. 

I see heaven as a place where we all love each other.   The step by step process of making this place heaven is simply each of us learning to listen to each other more intently.   We would normally think that language would be a barrier, but we fail to listen to our brothers and sisters who speak our own tongue. Listening requires being able to “be” the other.  It requires us to perhaps not return speech at all.  Heaven then, is a listening space, and then a speaking space for some.  Jesus says “the kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed.”  I think the kingdom of God is coming with things that can be heard.  It is not coming with things that can be seen and therefore there will be no need to say “Look, here it is,” or, “There it is.”

We were not created when God saw us into being.  We were brought into being when God spoke, “Let there be…”  Even nothingness listened. While listening is important, it must be managed. We jam our ears with noise all day.  Our phones, TV’s, radios and devices take over our minds and block out the kingdom of God. We need listening downtime.  We need to listen to our neighbor face to face and mouth to ear.  This then is heaven right here, right now.  Listening leads to learning, learning leads to loving, loving brings us the kingdom of God, which is already here if we would but listen. 

The next time you are conversing with someone take note of how much time the other gives you to really organize your thoughts and then speak with compassion.  Take note of how much time you give the other to organize their thoughts and then speak with compassion. The kingdom of God is speaking with compassion.  The kingdom is already among us.  We just need to listen

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 4: Year 1

Morning, Psalm 45; Evening, Psalms 47 and  48:
Deuteronomy 12:1 to 12; 2^nd Corinthians 6:3 to 7:1; Luke 17:11 to 19:

“Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice: (Luke 17:15)

This is the story of the ten lepers whom Jesus healed. He had compassion for them and told them to go to the priests and show themselves to be clean.  Within this healing lesson is the requirement to obey, that is, they are to go to the priests to show them.

However, we learn that one of the ten is a Samaritan.  He, would most probably, not be well received by the priests. But he was loved, and healed by Jesus.  So, here once again, we have an example of persons outside of Israel having more gratitude than the so-called chosen ones.  It was  only the Samaritan who turned back to give thanks and it caught the attention of Jesus. “Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” (Luke 17:18) 

Then it is revealed that our Lord Jesus manipulated the belief, (the faith), that was already in the Samaritan and this is was what saves him. Jesus uses different language from the word “cleanse.” “Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

The bottom line here is that there is an implied difference between having an earthly healing cancer or Covid,  and being “made well” as in being saved in eternal life.  In either case, faith is key.  Faith, or trust in God, can do both, heal our infirmity as well as save our souls. We must believe, and when we do, our Lord Jesus takes over and uses our faith, our trust in God in ways that we are not able to. But we must first have faith.

Full disclosure, I will take salvation over the healing of bodily sickness every time.  It is nice to have both, but eternity in the courts of heaven is my greatest desire. I want to live in love, to love, and for love, forever. 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 Monday of Proper 4: Year 1

Morning, Psalms 41 and  52; Evening,  Psalm 44;
Deuteronomy 11:13 to 19; 2^nd  Corinthians 5:11 to 6:2; Luke 17:1 to 10:

“So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”  (Luke17:10)

I don’t consider myself a worthless slave.  But I do have a sense of decency and duty. If I work for someone or even a large organization, whereby I am compensated in agreement with what was negotiated, I feel an obligation to fulfill my legal and agreed upon duties.  But more than that, If in a strange situation and I witness what I suspect is wrong-doing, I feel I have a moral obligation to stand up for whoever is victimized, that is, to stand up for decency.

As a military enlisted man I was taught that if and when we captured prisoners of war, once we have reduced their ability to be combatants, we were to imprison them and care for them. We were not to torture them or in any way mistreat them.  I believe the same is true for our police personnel today.  We need the police because we have bad actors in our communities.  But police have a responsibility for decency in duty also.  I think harassment of citizens is wrong for police persons who are sworn to “protect and serve.”  Protect and serve sure sounds like decency and duty to me.

Whether we are store clerks, accountants, doctors, school teachers, trash collectors, welders, farmers, priests, or any vocation, we have the call of decency in duty.  We are not slaves and we are not worthless.  I don’t think Luke meant this in the way that we might interpret it today.  Understanding gets lost in translation.  But there are things that we ought to do, and not do. First of all, we need to recognize that as we interact with people, we must see them as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus and therefore children of God. Whether a person is being arrested or taken prisoner of war, we need to stand them up, look them in the eyes in our search for the Spirit of God.  Yes, we put ourselves at risk if we are not careful.  But if we are afraid of people because they differ from us then maybe to protect and serve is not our call. 

I think we should do what we have agreed to do within loving reason.   I know of a young man, Doug, who was much sought after by delivery men because he could be counted on to be on time and proficient in his duties.  He was sought after on a daily basis because he was on time and worked hard. When compared to other workers who were often late and lazy, the driver – delivery men wanted Doug.  Doug would always say, I have only done what I am supposed to do, nothing more, and nothing less.  I thank God for the Doug’s of the world.

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

Eucharistic Readings for Trinity Sunday: Year A

Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a; Psalm 8; 2nd Corinthians 13:11 to13;  Matthew 28:16 to 20:

“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

Our Lord Jesus is handed down through the generations, parent to child, to child to child.  He has been handed down master to apprentice and leader to follower for more than 2000 years. Being a follower of our Lord Jesus re-identifies us.  It has re-identified me.  I now hold, being a Christian, my most important understanding of who I am. It is not being a so-called African American, or even an American or even a man. No, for me it is first and foremost about being what I will always be, A Christian. Jesus being with me to the end of the age is Emanuel.

This Emanuel is God with us. Our Lord Jesus says “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  Jesus has made a commitment to us.  He is of the Father and sends to us the Holy Spirit and never leaves us orphaned. We must respond by keeping this Trinitarian life alive in thought, word and deed. We must all sing the hymn: “I bind onto myself today the strong name of the Trinity, by vocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three.”  (Hymn 370 of the 1982 Hymnal)

We don’t have to understand the Trinity, just understand that it exists.  And it exists for our sake. Some of us live our lives historically.  We have to know how we got this way.  Such folk I call the Genesis people.  They want to know how we came to be.  They want to know how the races were divided.  They ask how police got started and then ask how police brutality started. They want to know the genesis of everything.  This is like the Creator story of who made the Clock, wound it and walked away; and will come back one day. Knowing the story may help us be ready for the return.

The Christian story is the story of the Son.  This is God Incarnate. This is the story of a beloved friend who will never, never, never leave our side, no matter what.   Jesus’ last words to us are that he will be with us, even to the end of the age. We have, in the same hymn, words that reflects this message: “Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me.” (Hymn 370 of the 1982 Hymnal) We are never without our Lord Jesus, never.

Finally, we have the Holy Spirit that resides in our Church. This is the Holy Spirit of God Whom our Lord Jesus said He will send to us, the Church. Jesus Sends us the Holy Spirit, that we remembered last Sunday, Pentecost, to our Church, to lead us and guide us in the way of truth and love.

We need all three.  We need to know, live and tell our faith stories. We need to see our Lord Jesus in the faithful faces of the friends we have as we worship together.  And we need to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us and abide in that holy leadership.  Happy Trinity Sunday!

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 3: Year 1

Morning, Psalms 30 and  32; Evening, Psalms 42 and  43;
Deuteronomy  5:22 to 33; 2^nd Corinthians 4:13 to 5:10; Luke 16:19 to 31:

 “Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God;” 2^nd Corinthians 4: 15).

This is so true, we need the Lord’s grace in order to show more and more people that they only have their being through God in Christ Jesus.  In this way, hopefully, more and more people will be thankful for that forgiving, and merciful grace.

I often ponder about life after death.  I know that I didn’t have to be.  But I am, I do exist. I have come to realize that I have an invitation to live on past this mortal state of being.  From my understanding as a Christian, what I believe and trust in, has a great deal to do with being received into a resurrection life. 

In our Luke reading for today we have the story of the rich man and Lazarus.  They both die and enter into an unequal after-life divided by a “great chasm.” This Gospel lesson as well as other text of the Bible lead me to believe that all people will rise beyond this life, at least, initially.  Personally, I don’t believe a loving God will keep us in some kind of eternal torment. I think that if we are inconsistent with the love of God at our individual awakening we just cease to exist. I don’t want that. I want to enjoy living and loving for all eternity on the comfort side of the great chasm.

Paul refers to our present life as a life living in a tent, a tent that will wear out eventually. He says, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2^nd Corinthians 5:1)

My personal and informal creed is a belief statement I wrote for myself. It is an elevator statement that can be quickly delivered about what I believe. Here it is, “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 don’t know what it is like to not exist and I don’t want to know. I am thankful that I have life and I want it for all people “so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.”

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