onewhoponders

Daily Office readings for Wednesday of Proper 27: Year 2

Morning,  Psalm 119:97-120; Evening,  Psalms 81and  82;
Joel 2:12to19; Revelation 19:11to21; Luke 15:1to10

“Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain-offering and a drink-offering for the Lord, your God?” (Joel 2: 12 to 14)

The real good news about God is that God is merciful, God will forgive us. Too often we will not forgive one another, but God will forgive each of us. God will forgive you.

This forgiveness comes from God’s deep, abiding and steadfast love for us.  It is a sacrificial love as expressed in our Lord Jesus going to the cross.  And nothing can separate us from that divine love. Paul said, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 8:38 and 39)

It has occurred to me then, that such a love makes it easier to forgive someone when offended. Forgiveness for children and family might come a little easier than forgiveness for friends, and certainly easier than for strangers and folks who are different from us.  And there’s the rub.  God, especially in Christ Jesus, is family. While not really denying his earthly mother and family he declares also that those who do the will of God are his family (Matthew 12:50). He also blurs the line between family and neighbor in the parable of the Good Samaritan where a stranger, a Samaritan, cares for a wounded man left for dead by robbers (Luke 10:29 to 37).  And finally, as he was crucified, our Lord Jesus ask God our creator to forgive the act we were committing (Luke 23:34)

It is impossible to forgive if we don’t first love.  We are asked by God to first love God and then to love one another. There is a direct connection between love and forgiveness.  If you don’t want to forgive, you never wanted to love in the first place.  To not love is ungodly. To change we must “return to the Lord, our God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.” I don’t know about you, but I could use some of that grain-offering and a drink-offering from the Lord, our God.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine.

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

Daily Office Readings for Tuesday of Proper 27:Year 2

Morning, Psalm 78:1to39; Evening, Psalm 78:40 to72;
Joel 1:15-2:2(3-11); Revelation 19:1-10; Luke 14:25-35

“To you, O Lord, I cry. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flames have burned all the trees of the field. Even the wild animals cry to you because the watercourses are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.” (Joel 1:19 and 20)

At the time that I am reading this Daily office I empathize with my brothers and sisters on our west coast in past years.  Terrible fires have driven people out of their homes and some have lost their lives, both residents and first responders. It is a very sad situation.

However, I remember the opening partition, “To you, O Lord, I cry.”  It is bad enough that we have had a global pandemic to deal with.  And, on top of that, people in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington States had to also deal with finding shelter for people who were temporarily housed in close proximity with one another and yet, be thankful that their lives are spared.  I ask your prayers for, and responses to, those who are still in desperate need.

Crying to the Lord is prayer that works. I believe “God’s ears hears tears.”  God hears our prayers, and God will respond. And God responds in surprising ways.  However, we must remember that God comes to us, through us. And, as revealed in the Joel reading, we must keep our non-human friends in thought, prayer and response as well. You may be God’s response to a squirrel or rabbit or even a wolf.  I believe we humans were brought into being to care for, and maintain this fragile earth, our island home.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine.

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

Daily Office Readings for Monday of Proper 27: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 80; Evening, Psalm 77, [79];
Joel 1:1to13; Revelation  18:15to24; Luke 14:12to24

“Hear this, O elders, give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your ancestors? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.” (Joel 1: 1 to 4)

In the Joel reading we hear of four different kinds of locusts.  There are cutting locusts, swarming locusts, hopping locusts and destroying locusts.  Therefore, no matter what kind of defense they plan, there comes a different kind of attack. It sounds similar to our Covid pandemic.

But Thanks be to God, we are never without hope.  We have had to endure many social limitations and when I read “Grain-offering and drink-offering are withheld from the house of your God”  (Joel 1:13), I remember that we, in the Church, had to omit the chalice part of our Holy Communion. We did however get the bread or grain-offering.

The ever restructuring locusts were not too different from our Corona Virus.  Some catch it, and some re-catch it.  In Joel we read, “For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness” (Joel 1:6).  However, we believers must remember that no virus or any “bug,” is more powerful than our God.  And as the hymn goes, “Our God Reigns.”

And while the virus made us separate, I believe it is coming together in the right way that we will be enabled to eradicate this pandemic.  We had to come together heeding the advice to wear face coverings, maintain social distancing and washing our hands often.  Perhaps, just perhaps, these words came from the Spirit of God down through the saints of God.  I want this pandemic to be over. And, I want to touch people again during the Peace.  And with my grain offering, I’m glad to have the chalice back too. Thank You Lord Jesus.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine.

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

New Testament Eucharistic Readings for Sunday of Proper 27: Year C

2^nd  Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 Luke 20:27-38

“But [Jesus] said, “those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage,  and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection.” (Luke 20:35 – 36)

The first thing Jesus does is to inform the Sadducees, these priests of the Temple, that even they neither know nor understand scripture.  This makes me wonder about how much we of today, lay and clergy alike, really understand our ancient writings. It may be that some whole denominations are based on Biblical misunderstanding. It may also be that no single Christian denomination has the correct and complete understanding of where God is leading us.  Each one of us must do the best we can to walk by faith and not by sight.

It has only been about half of the Church’s existence that the Church adopted the human institution of marriage as a sacrament, and this sacramental rite has muscled its way against other existing sacraments like ordination whereby clergy in some denominations were not permitted to be married.  Perhaps some of us still neither know nor understand the scriptures.

I have been a married man for most of my life.  I don’t know what it would be like to not be partnered with someone.  I was never “given” in marriage like children are in some places, but married of my own free will and accord. So to hear Jesus say that that kind of relationship is over in the next life and will be different in the “age to come,”  is hard for me to understand. He said, “Those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage.”  Okay, but I still want it.

In at least two movies I have heard some war hero, who was about to give his life for the sake of others, say to those he was rallying for a final fight that he was leading, “Do you want to live forever?”  As I watch these movies I silently respond, “Yes.”  So when I hear Jesus say, “They can no longer die,” it appeals to me very much.

 Eternal life is what I am looking forward to.  Yes Jesus, I want to be like an angel. And I know that this outcome is not based on my effort or worth, but rather, on your judgment of my heart.  Anselm, early twelfth century Archbishop of Canterbury, said that we should first believe that we might later understand. Therefore, I don’t understand in order that I might believe; rather, I believe in order that I might later understand.  I pray to you, Lord God, “Cleanse the thoughts of my heart by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit that I may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your Holy Name through Jesus Christ my Lord, in this life, and in the next, for all eternity. Amen.”

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

Daily Office Readings for Saturday of Proper 26: Year 2

Morning,  Psalms 75 and 76; Evening,  Psalms 23 and 27;
Ecclesiasticus 51:1to12; Revelation 18:1to14; Luke 14:1to11

“On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely. Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath, or not?’  But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away.  Then he said to them, ‘If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?’  And they could not reply to this.” (Luke 14: 1 to 6)

Jesus asks a question about how closely they follow their own laws.  This is God in Christ Jesus who sees “in secret” and knows all that we do.  But what he is trying to show them is that the Sabbath is a gift from God to them for their own health of body, mind and spirit. The Sabbath is not some tool of wrath for God, by which God might condemn us just for the sake of enforcing a law.

Besides all this, who prepared the meal they were partaking of on the Sabbath?  No faith should have laws whereby only certain humans are to abide by.  This includes my own tradition.  Maybe one day we will let all persons desiring to partake of Holy Communion to do so.  We are not there yet unfortunately.  I am not so sure that baptism was a requirement with our Lord Jesus to receive the Bread and Wine (Body and Blood), but it is for us today.

No religious tradition is perfect. Sometimes it takes people from other traditions to show us our shortcomings.  “Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath, or not?”  Is it lawful to for the un-baptized to receive Communion or not? We all must follow our own paths.  I am on the Episcopal path of the Jesus movement as our Presiding Bishop says. And, I am thankful.  But I also see paths for improvement.  I think Jesus is saying that not all laws should be absolute save loving God and loving our neighbors. These two laws of love are absolute laws under which all other lower laws must yield. Thank You Lord Jesus.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine.

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

Daily Office Readings for Friday of Proper 26: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 69: Evening, Psalm 73;
Ecclesiasticus 50:1,11to24; Revelation 17:1to18; Luke 13:31to35

“At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.  Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.”  Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Luke 13: 31 to 34)

I was blessed to be able to go on a Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land in February of 2018.  I am thankful to God for this opportunity.  Before going I prayed to God to let me be open to accept and receive whatever God saw fit to bless me with.  And God answered me with truth.  My pilgrimage  began in Northern Israel (Galilee), and then ended in the city of Jerusalem in the south.

The two landscapes are totally different.  Galilee, to the north, has fertile fields and little hills, and is the span of land that our Lord Jesus conducted his three year ministry of teaching, preaching and healing. I was impressed with Capernaum, Nazareth, Cana, and Mount Tabor. Also, I was impressed with Lake Galilee, of which, I use my picture from a boat in Lake Galilee looking back at the shoreline of Galilee as the heading of my daily blog. The picture shows all the places Jesus walked to do His ministry.

We ended our pilgrimage down in Jerusalem.  To get there we went down to Jericho and then the long ride by bus up to the top of a mountain of sand some 2,474 feet above sea level.  It must have been a real task to get water up there 2000 years ago. Much praise and worshipful attention has been centered on Jerusalem.  Judaism, Christianity and Islam all claim a religious heritage to the place. I went to, and visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Given all of its splendor, I was not that impressed.  Then I remembered that I prayed to God to show me what God wanted me to see.

I also recalled that our Lord Jesus, of his own free will and accord, chose the land of Galilee to bring the good news of the kingdom of heaven.  And when he was raised from the dead, he told his followers to again meet him in Galilee from which he gave the Great Commission (Matthew 28). If I was again blessed to go to Israel, I would only go to Galilee, and again take in as much as I can. If you ask God for something in serious prayer, please understand, God’s response to you is not guided by what humanity values, but by what God values for humanity. Pray and see.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine.

 “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 is saying to us, let us live to love, to serve, and to teach, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Thursday of Proper 26: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 71; Evening, Psalm 74;
Ecclesiasticus 44:1to15; Revelation 16:12 to21; Luke 13:18 to 30

“Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few be saved?’ He said to them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13: 23 and 24)

I guess the answer to the question of “someone” is, yes, only a few will be saved.  There is a wide door that many will walk through, but that does not mean it is the entry into paradise.

Each one of us has the personal responsibility to do what we think is right to do, no matter how unpopular it might be. I have a poster that shows an old man walking alone down a road.  Under it the caption reads, “It is better to walk alone than in a crowd going the wrong way.”

The wide door can surely accommodate the large crowd. But through the wide door it may lead the large crowd over the side of a steep cliff, and down into the abyss to their own demise. We all must make our own decisions about where we are going.  Even following the crowd is a decision; it is a decision to let others decide for us.  We can’t follow the crowd and then later, when trouble comes, allege innocents saying “I thought they knew what they were doing.”

Two biblical crowd decisions that I can recall show where the wrong decisions were made. One is  when the crowd persuaded Aaron to make a golden calf for the Israelites to worship while in the wilderness; and the other is when the crowd around the jailed Jesus insisted that he be crucified. Crowds are made up of individuals who have handed over their independent conscience to mob rule. Don’t do that.  Be who God made you to be, and do what God asks you to do in your prayers.

God’s Way is often a little more difficult and sometimes the unpopular path to travel. Too many of us look for the short cut, the easy way, the wide door.  Our Lord Jesus says, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.” Being able is a matter of personal determination and life discipline. Each one of us must make our own decisions about each next step in our lives.  And if you find that you are joined by other disciplined and determined persons who also chose your same path, great! But first strive to find your own path to our Lord Jesus. Roll your heart sleeves up, it’s hard work, it’s the narrow door.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine.

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

Readings for All Souls Day or All Faithful Departed:

Psalm 130 or 116:10 to17:
Wisdom 3:1to9 or Isaiah 25:6 to 9;1^st Thessalonians 4:13to18; or 1^st Corinthians 15:50 to 58; and John 5:24 to 27:

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.”  (John 5; 24)

So our Lord Jesus, while so wanting us to prosper in eternal life, that he dedicated his earthly life to the end that we continue to learn and to love and to transition our lives into that perfect realm where with the Creator we all truly live “happily ever after.” He has conquered death for us and we, by our faith will have everlasting life.

Our Episcopal and Anglican Church holds a day apart specifically to commemorate the faithful departed.  Our Church, on the second of November, today, remembers and prays for our departed family and friends whom we love.

Yes we remember September 11^th, 2001 and other tragic days.  These were sad days. However, I personally object to letting a few sick minds pick a day that I am going to commemorate my lost loved ones every year. Our Church already has such a day.  There are individual days set aside for certain people of scripture and of the Church wherein we remember them.  And while I understand that most people in America do not belong to the Episcopal Church, I am personally thankful that I do and that my Church provides a time for me and my Anglican family to collectively remember those whom God has blessed us with, but who have now gone on to be with our Lord.

Below I am providing two prayers for your convenience.  In the first, please insert the name or names of loved ones you miss where I have inserted a blank.  And then I will close with another prayer.  Both are found in our Book of Common Prayer (BCP)

Father of all, we pray to you for those we love,[________] but see no longer: Grant them your peace; let light perpetual shine upon them; and, in your loving wisdom and almighty power, work in them the good purpose of your perfect will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP 504)

Almighty God, Father of mercies and giver of comfort: Deal graciously, we pray, with all who mourn; that, casting all their care on you, they may know the consolation of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 505)

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine.

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

Eucharistic Readings for All Saints Day: Year  C

Daniel 7:1-3,15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31

“I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.” (Ephesians 1:17 to 19)

Every now and then, Paul really nails it.  Paul refers to all believers in Christ as Saints, both past believers and believers of today. 

Today, we sometimes want to be heroes; that is, life savers and protectors and such.  What would it be like to want to be a saint in the truest sense of the word?  Most saints aren’t officially named as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church until certain criterion are met.  However, Paul doesn’t wait, if we believe, we are saints right now according to “Saint” Paul.

We have ancient, and not so ancient saints to emulate.  From Saint Peter to Saint Francis of Assisi; from Saint Mary Magdalene to Saint Teresa of Avila, there are varieties of practices we can copy. Humility and compassion I find to be the most common traits.  While humility and compassion aren’t very “heroic” such traits guide believers into eternal life with our Lord Jesus for all eternity.  Let all true believers become saints.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine.

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

Daily Office Readings for Monday of Proper 26: Year 2

Morning, Psalms 56 and 57; Evening, Psalms 64 and 65;
Ecclesiasticus 38:24 to 34; Revelation 14:1 to 13; Luke 12:49 to 59

“How different the one who devotes himself to the study of the law of the Most High!” (Ecclesiasticus 38:34)

I have a friend who really appreciates the life lessons she received from her former pastor. She said he would take his own money to post bail for one of his parishioners when he was arrested; he broke his own Church tradition and served real wine at their Holy Communions, and many other such acts that taught her to live a faithful Christian life. He was a barber by trade.

Our Ecclesiasticus reading for today teaches us that one cannot be both. The author says that we either devote ourselves to secular work or we devote ourselves to work of spiritual healing and worship. The writer teaches that we can’t effectively do both.  I disagree.

For one thing, the secular work we find ourselves in was either handed down as the family business, or was evaluated for us in some kind of career test, or something we thought would be nice to do or, such a craft pays well.  Real spiritual healing and Church worship are not career choices, such Godly vocations are Callings.  Jesus Called fishermen to follow him.  He didn’t stop them from being fishermen, he qualified them to do the Lord’s work. We still need both today.  I don’t believe we must forego one in order to do the other.  We don’t qualify ourselves for the Lord’s work.  God doesn’t call the qualified, God qualifies the Called.

There are many doctors and scientists today who are also life changing Christian clergy, and not all are called along our Christian path. The point is that many of us are like Saint Paul who was a tentmaker who was also called to take the Gospel of Christ to the Gentiles. You too may be such a saint who God is calling to do such work, the Lord’s work.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine.

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