onewhoponders

Part 1 of 2

Daily Office Readings for Sunday of Proper 16: Year 1

Morning, Psalms 146 and 147; Evening, Psalms 111, 112 and 113;
2^nd Samuel 24:1 to 2 and10 to 25; Galatians 3:23 to 4:7; John 8:12 to 20:

“If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” (John 8:19)

Our Lord Jesus is our closest view of the love of God. As a Christian, I must look at how our Lord Jesus related with people in order to catch a glimpse of the nature and character of God. Our Lord Jesus, as far as we can tell, never cheated anybody, or hurt or killed anybody.  On the other hand, he seemed to love everybody.  He was occasionally firm with some, but always taught a message of love.

Part 2 of 2 

New Testament Eucharistic Readings for Proper 16: Year B

Ephesians 6:10-20 and John 6:56-69

“Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66 to 69)

The truth of the matter is, we don’t have choices.  God, our God, is Lord of all and it is our hope and trust that God, our one God, is loving and merciful to all of us. This love and mercy component about God has been handed down since humanity has recorded our relationship with God. This record is both Biblically recorded, and handed down word of mouth for generations. 

Our Trust is in the goodness of God as made manifest in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.  As Peter says, who else can we appeal to or seek out for help if not our Lord Jesus?  I think the real good news for us, and for all people, is that no matter what happens to us, God wins every time. Nothing can happen to us that God can’t undo. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us and save us from the time of trial.”  Our Lord Jesus taught us to pray to God the Creator in this way for our help and safety. Our help is in the Maker of heaven and earth.  The Incarnate One walked among us to guide us to God’s Self for our sakes.  There is no one else we can count on for eternal life. Simon Peter is so right. Thank You Lord Jesus.

Let us live to love, serve and teach, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying through the saints and to us, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Saturday of Proper 15: Year 1

Morning, Psalm 137:1to 6, and Psalm 144; Evening,  Psalm 104:
2^nd Samuel 23:1 to 7 and,13 to17; Acts 25:13 to 27; Mark 13:1to 13:

“When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 13: 11)

Mark 13 is the Eschaton or “Last Days” chapter of the Gospel according to Mark. Each Gospel has its own version of the signs of the end of days.  I am often asked the question, “when we die, do we go immediately to heaven or do we wait for the last day?”  To which I answer “when a person sleeps or even is hospitalized for several days, perhaps the first thing they want to know when they awake is the current time (or date if in the hospital).”  This is why we see the current date on a board in most hospital rooms. The point is, once they come to, the time away makes little difference.  We resume where, and when, we are. Being brought before God is the same way. We will see the next and final presence of our selves.

Maybe the more important words for me in our reading for today are the words for not worrying about what to say when it is time to preach.  Nowadays I just outline the points that I think need to be made from the scripture we have for the day, or the designated scripture for the purpose of the gathering, and then really “Let go and let God.”  I depend on the Holy Spirit to use my voice for the spiritual benefit of the listeners.  It is voice to ear, and ear to soul, and soul to action in love and service.

The Holy Spirit, at some level, depends on us to have some language skills whereby we can talk or write to our neighbors.  Many of the early followers did both.  Luke, Paul and the Apostles, both talked (preached), and wrote to the various churches about the love of God in Christ Jesus. And there was that time in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit gifted the apostles with the languages necessary to give understanding to the people. This was the Day of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit among us, our Church.

This still happens today.  We only need to be still and give God the time to be with us. God wants every soul to be with God in eternity. Heaven is not a scarce resource. There is space for all.  Our Lord Jesus still says to us today, “Follow Me.” To this I say, “Lead Lord Lead.”

Let us live to love, serve and teach, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying through the saints and to us, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Friday of Proper 15:Year 1

Morning, Psalms 140 and 142; Evening, Psalms 141, 143:1-to11;
2^nd Samuel 19:24 to 43; Acts 24:24 to 25:12; Mark 12:35 to 44:

“Now if I am in the wrong and have committed something for which I deserve to die, I am not trying to escape death; but if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can turn me over to them. I appeal to the emperor.’ Then Festus, after he had conferred with his council, replied, ‘You have appealed to the emperor; to the emperor you will go:” (Acts 25: 11 and 12).

Paul is not afraid of death because he believes in the resurrection.  Perhaps he does not want to give his Jewish brethren the joy of killing him.  He uses his Roman citizenship to appeal to the emperor and it works.  Festus says, ‘You have appealed to the emperor; to the emperor you will go.’

No matter how good we might feel today, death is inevitable. It can be a matter of days, weeks, months, or years.  But inevitably, we will die.  Whom then do we appeal to?  The final Judge is the one who gave us life in the beginning. Let us recall the words from the Gospel according to John; “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. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”  (John 1:1 to 4)

Our citizenship is with our Creator and Word through Whom all life came into being. We must know that our appeal is to our Creator. The author of life will decide our fate after death has delivered us to the Holy Presence.  At least one way to sway the Creator is to be found with genuine love in our hearts.  Such love cannot be faked. It must be truly genuine.

Today, August 20, we remember Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux 1153. Bernard is famous for giving a sermon that motivated Christian Knights to go and liberate and protect pathways to Jerusalem and Palestine.  I think such a sermon would be helpful today for creating a pathway for Americans and loyal Afghanistan supporters to escape the horror perpetrated against them in Afghanistan. I pray for those in trouble and appeal to God for their protection and safe passage.  I pray for them even in my rest.

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

Let us live to love, serve and teach, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying through the saints and to us, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Thursday, of Proper 15: Year 1

Morning, Psalms 131, 132, and 133; Evening, Psalms 134 and 135;
2^nd Samuel 19:1 to 23; Acts 24:1 to 23; Mark 12:28 to 34:

“I have a hope in God—a hope that they themselves also accept—that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous:” (Acts 24: 15).

After his accusers use their smooth talk by buttering up Felix the Governor, trying to persuade him to execute Paul, Paul now speaks and states his case about how he has not changed the Hebrew Law and still believes in what they believe, to include the resurrection.

Paul proclaims that there will be a resurrection of both the Good and the bad – the righteous and the unrighteous.  And just as he stood before Felix then, all humanity will stand before the Great Throne of God where the Judge of life will gaze upon the content of our hearts.

I believe what is found in our hearts will state our case far more than whatever our earthly actions were. Our earthly witnesses may have seen us do or say something that they considered sinful, or even evil. But God looks upon us and loves us and sees the “why” of our ways. Back when Paul was Saul, he went about doing what he thought in his heart, was what God wanted of him.  It was not until our Risen Lord Jesus met him on the Road to Damascus that he was changed forever.

Our Lord Jesus teaches us that God knows our hearts and has mercy on us.  Our only hope in the resurrection is that God in Christ Jesus has mercy on us, forgives us, and accepts us into eternal glory. But like Saul to Paul who stands before Felix, we stand before our Lord. We can’t fix ourselves. We need our Maker to fix us but we have to want it first. 

If we want it, we must pray our Opening Collect as seriously as we can.  “Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.” (1979 Book of Common Prayer; page 355)

We must understand that we will be raised from the dead.  Of course, I don’t know what that will be like. I haven’t been there.  It doesn’t really make any difference how we die or how our end of life is remembered, be it cremation, traditional burial, drowned at sea or blown to smithereens.  God will bring us before the Great Throne. There we will be judged. It is important that we believe this and in believing it, we conduct our lives now in accordance with a righteous heart. We do this with the help of our Lord. And the Lord of lords will help us if we just try to love one another.

Let us live to love, serve and teach, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying through the saints and to us, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Wednesday of Proper 15: Year 1

Morning, Psalm 119:145 to 176; Evening, Psalms 128, 129 and 130;
2^nd Samuel 18:19 to 33; Acts 23:23 to 35; Mark 12:13 to 27:

“And they came and said to him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth:” (Mark 12:14)

Our Daily Office Lectionary Reading of Mark is long for today and has two components. There is the issue of whether or not they, or we, should pay the tax.  Then there are the Sadducees who do not believe in the resurrection. This is why they are “SAD YOU SEE?”  I will try to deal with both.

Jesus walks into human history about five thousand years after we have been using money.  Money, especial metal coins have pretty much no shelf life, the coins will last several human life times and therefore can be handed down from generation to generation. And pretty much as long as we have had money we have had public servants who do not work fields or ply the craftsman’s trades.  Such public officials are the governing body from Cesar himself right down to the lowest soldier enforcing Roman, or whatever national law or constitution, he or she is instructed to enforce.  We need these public servants. We would be hard-pressed to have a community life without them. We also need a reserve for those who have no income.  So yes, we should pay the tax.  However, our Lord Jesus is right; God does not want the tax.  God wants our hearts and souls to be with God for all eternity; which brings us to the next issue, the Resurrection.

Jesus refuses to use the example put before him by the Sadducees regarding the woman who married brothers, all of whom died and finally she died.  The question put before Jesus is, “Whose wife will she be in the Resurrection?”  Jesus informs them that they don’t understand the scriptures.  Life in the Resurrection is independent of human traditions and laws. We are all God’s  own in the Resurrection without having the limitations of our mortal restrictions. Jesus uses God’s words about being the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.  God does not say He “was” the God of them, but rather, “is”, the God of them.  They still Live!

I think they spoke correctly when they approached Jesus in the beginning. “And they came and said to him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth:”  There was no need to go any further after saying that.  Since Jesus teaches the Way of God in accordance with the truth; then they, and we, should be done with any further questions. There should be nothing further to discuss. We should just listen to him and obey the commands to love God and neighbor.

Let us live to love, serve and teach, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying through the saints and to us, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Tuesday of Proper 15: Year 1

Morning, Psalms 120, 121, 122, and 123; Evening, Psalms 124, 125, 126 and 127;
2^nd Samuel 18:9 to 18; Acts 23:12 to 24; Mark 11:27 to 12:12:

“What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others:” (Mark 12:9).

Reading Marks version of this vineyard parable is somewhat confusing.  Let us review Matthew’s version of the same parable.  In Matthew we read Jesus saying, “When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons:” (Matthew 21:40 and 41).  We can clearly see in Matthew’s version of this parable that it is the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders who are saying that God will destroy those who killed the son of the owner of the vineyard.  Why does our justice, in too many cases, have to have others suffer? I fully support incarceration of those deemed too dangerous to allow to go free. But I am totally against abusing people in some kind of retribution.

I ponder much from this lesson. First, why is it that too many of us want to bring violent judgment on those we find guilty? This is especially troubling when we remember that all of us have some guilt even if only a little.  If we live long enough perhaps we will grow up and never sin again. So not only do we want to wreak havoc on those we find guilty, we want to justify it by saying “[God] will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others:” Could we not just say, “God will come and give the vineyard to others?

But even after hearing the parable and passing judgment on the people of the parable, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders now want to harm Jesus for telling the parable against them.  Do we ever learn? If we hear something, perhaps a story wherein we can see ourselves in the story in an unflattering way, perhaps this then is the opportunity to repent and change.  This is what pondering does for me. It opens me up to seeing myself in the parables and other stories, not only of the Bible, but in any story.  I want to be the good guy, but it takes work; it takes pondering about love; love even for those who are undoubtedly guilty, just as I have been. We should take retaliation and revenge off the table of how to respond to unpleasant acts done by others and ourselves.

We need to replace retaliation and revenge with love, compassion and mercy, even as we acknowledge that some of us must be restrained for the safety of our communities.  It is the loving care of our vineyard that produces the fruit that the owner wants when he returns.

Let us live to love, serve and teach, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying through the saints and to us, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Monday of Proper 15: Year 1

Morning, Psalm 106:1 to 18; Evening,  Psalm 106:19 to 48;
2^nd  Samuel 17:24 to 18:8; Acts 22:30 to 23:11; Mark 11:12 to 26:

“When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, ‘Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead.’ When he said this, a dissension began between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge all three.)” (Acts 23: 6 to 8)

Perhaps our Risen Lord Jesus selected Saul/Paul because he was born and raised a Pharisee. The Pharisee believed in the resurrection, in angels, and in the Holy Spirit.

The scribes of the Pharisees then asked a very important question; we read, “Then a great clamor arose, and certain scribes of the Pharisees’ group stood up and contended, ‘We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” (Acts 23:9).  This is what we all should be asking ourselves today if and when, we hear someone witnessing an experience beyond what scripture reveals, and beyond our limited understanding of what God wants of us and what God is doing in our very midst.

Even the asking of the question by the scribes is some evidence that the Holy Spirit of God is at work in the human situation. But the stubbornness of some will not make room for the Spirit to work. The dissension became violent and the soldiers had to intervene. Even the intervention of the tribunes might have been a way in which God was acting.

I found that when I went to The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in 2018, there was dissension among the various Christian Churches about how to divide up the times each would have for worship in this sacred Church building. They gave authority to a Muslim family to manage which Church would worship and when. So for just over 500 years now descendants of a Muslim family still manages which Christian Church worships at what time.  An outside family acts as God’s regulatory hand amidst the dissension.

I pray today for God to use some of us in Afghanistan today as that country falls into chaos due to the U.S. withdrawal.  This is happening right now as I am writing this blog.  I pray to God for protection for the women and all who might fall prey to the violence of the Taliban. Love and compassion must prevail. I also pray for the people of Haiti as they are faced with natural disaster. Love and compassion sometimes must come from outside to do God’s work of love.

Let us live to love, serve and teach, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying through the saints and to us, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Part 1 of 2

Daily Office Readings for Sunday of Proper 15: Year 1

Morning, Psalm 118; Evening,  Psalm 145;
2^nd  Samuel 17:1 to 23; Galatians 3:6 to 14; John 5:30 to 47:

“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life:” (John 5:39 and 40).

Jesus tells them that the scriptures have the code about who Jesus is.  There are many hints in the Hebrew Testament about the One to come.  I particularly like Jeremiah 34: 31 to 34.  “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”  I like this one, but there are other references to the coming of the Lord.

Part 2 of 2

New Testament Eucharistic Readings for Sunday of Proper 15: Year B

Ephesians 5:15 to 20 and John 6:51 to 58:

“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them:” (John 6:56).

Perhaps our Lord Jesus is talking over their heads as he uses metaphorical language that turns them off. He is not suggesting cannibalism. But he is telling them that if they have his teachings in them, they will have eternal life. The teachings were the lessons leading up to His Great Remembrance wherein he fully explains what it means to eat his body and drink his blood. As John does not have a proper Lord’s Supper, let us borrow from 1^st Corinthians as does our Episcopal Church: Paul says, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1^st Corinthians 11: 23 to 25). This is really what our Lord Jesus was preparing them for. The Lord’s supper is a love meal in remembrance of Him.

Let us live to love, serve and teach, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying through the saints and to us, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Saturday of Proper 14: Year 1

Morning, Psalm 107:33 to 43 and 108:1 to 6; Evening,  Psalm 33;
2^nd Samuel 16:1 to 23; Acts 22:17 to 29; Mark 11:1 to 11:

“The tribune answered, ‘It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship.’ Paul said, ‘But I was born a citizen:” (Acts 22:28)

You and I are citizens of heaven and the price of our citizenship was paid by our Lord Jesus. Jesus tells us that we too must be born again into this citizenship from above by water and the Spirit: (John 3:3 to 7). Personally, I now understand the “born again,” as born into love and service to others. In no way are we, as citizens of heaven, to mistreat others or use others in demeaning ways.

I don’t understand “examining” with a whip as it seems to be the normal way of interrogation in our Acts reading for today.  It’s like beating a person until they say what you want them to say.  It’s wrong. I seem to recall that Pilot did the same thing to our Lord Jesus even though he was going to have him crucified. Why?  If we truly become the other, we would feel what they feel and therefore not be mean and cruel to them.

You and I should be examining ourselves daily by the plumb line of Christ with which we measure our thoughts and actions on a daily basis. It is only when we see the straight and moral correctness of our Lord Jesus, and how we are not so straight when compared to him, that we correct ourselves and strive to be better. While we understand that we will never be our Lord Jesus, we should be devoted to a life of trying to be the best Jesus we can be. I’m not there yet but I haven’t given up on me.

I will strive everyday to not yield to, returning evil for evil, name calling, one-upping, racial, religious, political, or national prejudice, and other sinful practices that seem to be the norm for this world of separation and indifference. I will strive to not behave in these ways because I realize that it is not who I am as a citizen of heaven.

Jesus’ citizenship took precedence over ours for our benefit.  But we are no less citizens of heaven now because he has paid the price that God the Creator has accepted. Our citizenship is through our Lord Jesus. Therefore, we are no longer citizens of this world, but rather citizens of that heavenly country where there is life eternal, and from whence, no traveler returns.  Thank you Lord Jesus.

Let us live to love, serve and teach, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying through the saints of God and to us, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John

Daily Office Readings for Friday of Proper 14: Year 1

Morning, Psalm 102; Evening, Psalm 107:1-32;
2^nd  Samuel 15:19 to 37; Acts 21:37 to 22:16; Mark 10:46 to 52:

“So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.” (Mark 10: 50)

At some point when teaching a young child to ride a bicycle, we must take off the training wheels, those added security wheels that reminds them of the days of the tricycle. What then is to be done with the old training wheels? 

When I taught my granddaughter to ride a bicycle, after many hours of walking and or running alongside her, holding her up, we stopped for a rest; at least for me. After a few minutes, she said to me, Grandpa, let me ride it by myself.  To which I said, go ahead but be careful.”

She rode and rode up and down our driveway again and again, without me, without training wheels. She just needed me to get out of the way. She just needed to be released from both me, and the training wheels.

Bartimaeus needed to be released from his cloak. If one is blind it is so important to either hold on to personal things or put a lot of attention in where thins are laid in order that the item can be found again when needed. So throwing off his cloak and springing up to meet Jesus demonstrates his strong faith in what Jesus will do for him. He let go of his safety in order to gain sight.

We too must let go of whatever hinders our path to the healing of our Lord Jesus. And yes, there will be some folks trying to prevent us from being with Jesus alone.  They have become our cloak or our training wheels. They too must be removed in order to fully absorb the life changing love of our Lord Jesus.

Today we also remember Jeremy Taylor, Bishop and Theologian (13 August 1667).

Jeremy Taylor is one of many Church saints that I read and re-read for spiritual health. He lived and served in adverse conditions due to England’s civil war and being in forced retirement.

“As Vice-chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin, he took a leading part in reviving the intellectual life of the Church of Ireland. He remained to the end a man of prayer and a pastor.”  (Great Cloud of witnesses for August 13)

“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. 

Let us live to love, serve and teach, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying through the saints of God and to us, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John