onewhoponders

Daily Office Readings for Thursday of the 4^th Week in Lent: Year 1

Morning Psalm 69:1-23 and 31-38; Evening Psalm 73;   
Jeremiah 22:13 to 23; Romans 8:12 to 27; John 6:41 to 51

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.  And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8: 26 and 27)

I think chapter 8 of Romans is special. In our reading for today Paul, with God’s guidance, relates to us how we should let go and let God.  Our Book of Common Prayer is full of beautiful prayers. I have committed many to memory. But nothing compares to the prayers stirring up in us by the Holy Spirit when we need them. I have prayed extemporaneously at sick beds and dying beds in my priesthood. I let go of the Book of Common Prayer and use the words given to me by God’s Holy Spirit. I must admit, I am always amazed.

God gives us the words and answers we need when we need them. As Paul says, “with sighs too deep for words.”  But Paul also says that God “searches the heart and knows what is the mind of the Spirit.” I think the mind of the Holy Spirit of God is like an expensive cologne, the fragrance is different in each of us according to our individual chemistry, but always good for the community in which we live.

Sometimes we just need to sit in silence and reflect and ponder about God and how God is acting in our everyday lives. Remember Blaise Pascal’s words, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”  Prayer, real prayer, is not something we produce. We are prayed through by God. The good news is that we get to hear what God is saying in our own voice. We just need to trust in God, and let go and let God. 

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

Daily Office Readings for Wednesday of the 4^th Week in Lent: Year 1

Morning Psalms 101 and 109:1 to 4 and 20 to 30; Evening Psalm 119:121 to 144;
Jeremiah 18:1 to 11; Romans 8:1 to 11; John 6:27 to 40

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11)

Thank you Paul for these words to ponder. While I often find myself filtering out of Paul’s words, what is from God, and what is from Paul, it is sometimes hard to tell.  With this bit of insight however, I feel it is definitely from God, through Paul, and to us. It may even explain God’s co-existence with the man we call Jesus. That is, God, personified in Christ Jesus, knows how to implant God’s Spirit into the human soul.

God’s presence dwelling in us identifies us back to God and is key to us being raised into the next, and, eternal life.  Along with God’s indwelling Spirit, we must also believe.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)

 So God is within each one of us. This Spirit of God raised our Lord Jesus as the first fruits of eternal life. You are next. God is already in you. Do you believe?  It takes both. God has done God’s part.  If you believe in the love of our Lord Jesus and the love of God that Jesus showed us, how is it made manifest in your words and deeds? Live what you believe.

Today we remember Saint Patrick: Bishop and Missionary of Ireland, 461

“When Patrick was about sixteen, he was captured by a band of Irish slave-raiders. He was carried off to Ireland and forced to serve as a shepherd. When he was about twenty-one, he escaped and returned to Britain, where he was educated as a Christian. He tells us that he took holy orders as both presbyter and bishop, although no particular see is known as his at this time. A vision then called him to return to Ireland. This he did about the year 431……  Two works are attributed to Patrick: an autobiographical Confession, in which he tells us, among other things, that he was criticized by his contemporaries for lack of learning, and a Letter to Coroticus, a British chieftain. The Lorica or St. Patrick’s Breastplate (“I bind unto myself today”) is probably not his, but it expresses his faith and zeal.” (Great Cloud of Witnesses for March 17)

Patrick goes back to his former capturers in order to show them Christian love through the Christian Church.  Are we able to show love to those who have offended us? If we can do this, we too are saints.

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

Daily Office Readings for Tuesday of the 4^th Week in Lent: Year 1

 Morning Psalms 97 and 99; Evening Psalm 94;
Jeremiah 17:19 to 27; Romans 7:13 to 25; John 6:16 to 27

“And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.” (Jeremiah 17:22)

According to Rabbi Joshua Heschel, the Sabbath is a gift from God. It is an offering of time that we should observe and be thankful for. The time of Sabbath is more holy than any place on earth. I fully understand that we must stay vigilant during our Sabbath time while watching and caring for the sick, and being prepared in case of fire or human violence, or aggression from foreign countries. However, as much as possible, we should set aside the seventh day, Saturday the Sabbath day, for rest (which does not necessarily mean worship).  God knows that we need a day of pure rest so that we can “come to ourselves.”  Medical people, fire fighters, police and the military should also work in such a way as to be afforded at least every other Sabbath day off when and if possible.

There are important and valuable lessons handed down to us in the Hebrew Testament. As Christians we should not ignore them. They still apply to us as Christians today. Let us prepare early in the week in anticipation for a Holy Sabbath. Is there a way we can look forward to loving the Sabbath? The isolation we have experienced during this pandemic has surely shown us that we can in fact stay home and be at rest.  Perhaps we can keep the idea of some quiet time, post pandemic.

I take this time to write about this because the God of Israel is the Christian God also. Jeremiah was told by God to give this message at the People’s Gate, “and in all the gates of Jerusalem, and say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. Thus says the Lord: For the sake of your lives, take care that you do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors,” (Jeremiah 17:19 to 22).  So, where is says; “and in all the gates,” I am thinking that over time, and metaphorically speaking, one of those gates is our Christian Gate. We only have one God who is the same then as God is now and will be forever.

We don’t have time to decide what is Jewish and what is Jesus. Jesus himself kept the Sabbath. Therefore, so should we who profess to follow Him.  In fact, we should live and learn to love the Sabbath as God’s gift to all people no matter our socio-economic status or branch of worship.

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

Daily Office Readings for Monday of the 4^th Week in Lent: Year 1

Morning Psalm 89:1-18; Evening Psalm 89:19-52 ;  
Jeremiah 16:10 to 21; Romans 7:1 to 12; John 6:1 to 15;

“Our ancestors have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.” (Jeremiah 16:19)

I feel very strongly that some of our Biblical teachings, even Christian teachings, have been tainted to suit those teachers whose purpose is to shape their respective communities into beliefs that would support racist and misogynistic codes of  community conduct. Such biblical teaching taught that slaves should obey their masters, and that wives should be subservient to their husbands.

I believe there should be no slaves at all, and that marriage is an equal partnership where either partner may lead in family the life depending on the individual strengths, not their gender or sex. God says through Jeremiah, “I am now sending for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall catch them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.” (Jeremiah 16:16)

This is perhaps the first time that the use of fishermen and hunters are used to go do the Lord’s work.  Of course, we hear of fishermen called into the service of the Lord on the shores of Capernaum in the Gospels. These callings are very different. The fishermen and hunters of Jeremiah are called to find and bring in those who, through their iniquity and promotion of idols, are an abomination to God.

The fishermen of Capernaum, and Paul, the hunter of the faithful, are those sent to evangelize the world in the way of God through our Lord Jesus. John and James, Peter and Andrew as well as Paul are among the first saints who speak to us about the truth of who Jesus is and about what God wants for us.  However, even with some of the letters supposedly from Paul, we must be careful.

Too much of the Bible story has been twisted to suit the bigotry and misogynistic rhetoric of self-serving and racist males to suit their own narcissist desires. These are worthless things in which there is no spiritual profit. I consider myself as one called to fish for and hunt down such misguided teachings and set them right.

John, James, Peter and Andrew along with Matthew, Mark and Luke tell the Gospel truth. When the Gospel is read in Church, the whole congregation re-orients itself in turning to face the words therein. The Gospel then changes us in ways that point us to the inclusive truth about God. This is done through living a life of love and listening to the loving saints of God. Love is most important.

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

Part 1 of 2

Daily Office Readings for Sunday of the 4^th Week of Lent: Year 1

Morning Psalms 66 and 67; Evening Psalms 19 and 46;   
Jeremiah 14:1 to 9 and 17 to 22; Galatians 4:21 to 5:1; Mark 8:11 to 21:

“For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

Paul compares the two mothers; Hagar, mother of slaves, and, Sarah, mother of free people. The slavery that Paul speaks of is more than just slavery of an ancient Arabia.  It is slavery to whatever we substitute for God. This could be money, power, modern devices, owning art, or even Church status. God’s plan, since before Abraham, is for us to be free.  We are born of a free mother. Nothing can enslave us if we stand firm in our faith of freedom.

Part 2 of 2

Eucharistic Readings for Sunday of the 4^th Week in Lent: Year B

Numbers 21:4 to 9;  Psalm 107:1 to 3 and 17 to 22;  Ephesians 2:1 to 10;  John 3:14 to 21

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”  (John 3:17)

We have heard John 3:16 forever. I think John 3:17 better explains the mission of God in Christ Jesus.  Jesus comes to us as Holy Hope! We have a chance. It is good to know that God loves us in spite of ourselves.

We too often keep loving ourselves more than we love God. We want power, and glory, and wealth. We want these things so that we look better than those looking at us, other people. We need to start caring more about how God sees us. If we put how God sees us ahead of how other people see us we will be seen in a better light by both God and others. There is a reason our two great commandments are to first love God, and then, only then, love your neighbor as yourself.

There is a final kingdom, this is not it. There is an eternal kingdom, this is not it. However, we are invited to come to that eternal kingdom through our Lord and Savior Jesus who is here from the Almighty and eternal God and who can save us from ourselves. This world is temporal, but not condemned. This world is the stepping stone to that heavenly world where for all who take this step of loving the Creator may reside.  Let us live to love more than we love to live.

Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to, and through, the saints of God, and then ponder anew what the Almighty can do.  John

Daily Office Readings for Saturday, of the 3^rd Week of Lent: Year 1

Morning Psalm 87 and  90; Evening Psalm 136;  
Jeremiah 13:1 to 11; Romans 6:12 to 23; John 8:47 to 59: 

“Then the Jews said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’^*  Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” (John 8:57 to 59)

Our Lord Jesus has always said that He is God’s Presence among us. We interpret that as Son of God. We are truly limited in our language. Incarnate literally means, personified or in material form. From the Gospel of Saint John we learn the God is Spirit, (John 4:24). God being Spirit means that God has always been. God was with Abraham and called him from Err. God was with Moses at the burning bush where God declared God’s name to be “I AM.” This is what God in Christ Jesus said to those who challenged him. He said, as God said to Moses at the burning bush, “God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14)

This is the same “I AM,” that speaks to his challengers in our Gospel reading of John for today, who then try to stone him.  What a shame. Couldn’t they just believe? Can’t we today, just believe?

Full disclosure, I am more a teaching and healing Jesus than a Jerusalem crucified Jesus. Having been to the Holy Land, I was really fascinated with the walk of Jesus in Israel, northern Israel, the Galilee area.  It is in Galilee that our Lord Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, changed water into wine, raised the dead in Nain, taught the Beatitudes, walked on the waters of Lake Galilee, and called his disciples to follow him. And, Galilee is where our Lord Jesus arranged to meet them after His Resurrection. (Matthew 28:6)   Galilee is also where we Christians received the Great Commission. (Matthew 28:19 and 20)

We are still in Galilee, and our Lord Jesus is still calling you to service. Our Lord Jesus, the Great I AM, is calling you through the scriptures, and through your prayers, and through the Saints of God.

Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to, and through, the saints of God, and then ponder anew what the Almighty can do.  John

Daily Office Readings for Friday of the 3^rd Week of Lent: Year 1

Morning Psalms 95 and 88; Evening Psalms 91 and 92;
Jeremiah 11:1 to 8 and 14 to 20; Romans 6:1 to 11; John 8:33 to 47;

I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word.” (John 8:37)

I consider myself a spiritual descendant of Abraham. My prayer is that I do indeed have a space in my heart and mind for the Word of our Lord Jesus. Jesus preached the love of God  in order that we might all be the children of God and in fact call on God as Abba, Father. In this way we may recognize ourselves as children of God and spiritual children to Abraham. Abraham was a strong man of faith who would even destroy his own biological son in his spiritual obedience to God. However, Jesus said to his critics, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.” (John 8:39 and 40) Abraham had a place in him for God’s Word.

Abraham left his father’s home and followed the voice of God and believed the promises of God about who he would become. He was blessed, and in this blessing he blessed the nations, and he blesses us today. The blessings we receive are not all for us. We too are blessed only in order to bless others. We bless others with some of our money, some of our time and some of our counsel. We should not take what God has blessed us with and hoard it for ourselves. God has given us that that belongs to those who are out there, some of whom, do not believe in, or know the love of God. But God loves them anyway, and God loves them through you.  Keep and maintain a place for the Word of God in you and then go and be a blessing to others.

Today we also remember Gregory the Great (604)

Pope Gregory was an amazing Pope who considered himself, “a servant of the servants of God.” Gregory sent Augustine of Canterbury to the English people to further organize the Church there. In this way Gregory played an instrumental role in the history of our Episcopal and Anglican Church. He is a key figure for me in our Church History. Gregory was blessed and passed that blessing on in the tradition of Abraham.

Today is Friday. For this evening and tomorrow day my friends; Shabbat Shalom

Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to, and through, the saints of God, and then ponder anew what the Almighty can do.  John

Daily Office Readings for Thursday of the 3^rd Week of Lent: Year 1

Morning Psalms 42 and 43; Evening Psalms 85 and 86;   
Jeremiah 10:11 to 24; Romans 5:12 to 21; John 8:21 to 32

“Everyone is stupid and without knowledge; goldsmiths are all put to shame by their idols; for their images are false, and there is no breath in them.  They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish.” (Jeremiah 10:14 and 15)

To me, the words of Jeremiah which says, “Everyone is stupid and without knowledge,” simply means that no one is pondering about God and real life. We are often enslaved by the imaginations of artists.  Artists have given angels a pair of wings but nowhere in the Bible, when it speaks of angels specifically, do they have wings.  Leonardo DaVinci has the apostles seated at a long table in such a way that we can see our Lord Jesus centered, and all the apostle’s faces can be seen, as in a photo op.

Jeremiah reports that goldsmiths have poisoned the minds of the community with their craft of golden gods made with human hands that have no power at all. They are a work of delusion. To buy into the imaginations of craftsmen is to not use our skills of reason which God has given to us all.  We do have knowledge, we are not without knowledge. We are not really stupid, but we don’t use our God-given reasoning ability to prayerfully examine Biblical text. If we did, we would not let the imaginations of a few, lead us down roads that are not validated by the ancient stories handed down to us from before Christ, and since Christ.

I love art. I love technological achievements that make life nice. However, I keep a clear distinction between what is nice and what is necessary. God, and worship of God, happens to be both for me, nice and very necessary. I can do without phones, devices and even this laptop that I am typing this on right now. I cannot however do without reaching out to God through my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whether it is documented or not.  Daily pondering in prayer and meditation is a matter of holy habit now.  I don’t believe we are really stupid and without knowledge as Jeremiah reports. I think we don’t take the time to sit quietly in a room alone. This is the recommendation of Pascal, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone,” Blaise Pascal. Each of us has the responsibility to form for ourselves the pattern of life we want. We get to decide how and when art and technology participate in our lives. We decide the habits we have.

We are the habits we keep, good or bad. What holy habits do you keep?  What holy habits would you like to start? Find a quiet space and ponder this.

Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to, and through, the saints of God, and then ponder anew what the Almighty can do.  John

Daily Office Readings for Wednesday of the 3^rd Week of Lent: Year 1

Morning Psalm 119:97 to120; Evening Psalms 81 and 82;
Jeremiah 8:18 to 9:6; Romans 5:1 to11; John 8:12 to 20

“We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Romans 5: 3 to 5)

I imagine suffering but not dying does lead to some kind of endurance. I mean we have all been in tight spots.  Sometimes it gets down to actually watching the secondhand of a clock tick by and saying to yourself, I got through that second; after second, after second, over and over again. This is the very basics of endurance.

I suppose there is a certain amount of maturation that comes with “getting through” difficult times. Such maturation morphs into character. And somewhere in our character is hope. I know that I hope a lot. Paul will come to say that we hope for what is not seen.  We don’t know how God will act in our lives. God is always so full of surprises. The two biggest surprises that I like to recall is the parting of the sea so that the Israelites could escape capture; and, the birth of our Lord Jesus, the Savior of the world. But before these surprising acts of God happened, there was a tremendous amount of hope. This hope was in a people who were oppressed, be it escaping slaves or occupied Palestinian Jews by Rome. For all of these, and like us today, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

I find it amazing that these words about God’s love being, “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,” appear today in our reading. Our Women’s Bible Study has been moved to Wednesdays since my retirement and these words of Noon Day Prayers are always prayed at our opening service. The surprise is that these words are appointed for today, the day of the week that I will meet with our faithful group. God is still full of surprises, great and small. Thank You Lord Jesus.

I ask you who read these words, to please try and be aware of the places where God is acting, even in very small ways in your life, because, in fact God is.  I tell people all the time that I can’t always see where God is, in my life, but in reflective pondering, I can always see where God was, and has acted in my life. And I am thankful.

Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to, and through, the saints of God, and then ponder anew what the Almighty can do.  John

Daily Office Readings for Tuesday of the 3^rd Week of Lent: Year 1

Morning Psalm 78:1 to 39; Evening Psalm 78:40 to 72;   
Jeremiah 7:21 to 34; Romans 4:13 to 25; John 7:37 to 52;

“No distrust made him [Abraham], waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”  (Romans 4:20 and 21)

I feel that I share a lot of conviction with Abraham, that is, no distrust about what God is doing among us and with me in particular. I have come a long way. I was a high school dropout who was blessed enough to join the United States Marine Corps in 1972. I left my father’s house in Nashville, Tennessee and have followed a life of duty, service and faith. The faith part occurred when I followed a fellow Marine to St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tennessee and was Baptized into God’s one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church in 1980. I have been following God ever since through the bread crumbs of Communion left by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Marines have an old poster that comes from a Lynn Anderson’s song, “I never promised you a rose garden.”  I attached it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sWW0nxi9bw. (Hint, you might want to skip the ad at the beginning)

It is an old, old video ad for the Marines. But the Marine Corps was my Godly invitation to leave Nashville and explore the world.  I have been around the earth six times and thought I was done. But then I underestimated God. As an Episcopal Priest now and a member of the Masonic Knights Templar, God once again took me on a trip to Israel to visit the Holy Land. I loved Galilee. I didn’t realize that God was already guiding my life in ways that I did not realize. Abraham was a better man than me. He never doubted or questioned but always believed. I, on the other hand, am still a work in progress. I don’t know where God will take me next but I have a good idea that it will be pleasing to me and to God. but most importantly, to God.

How about you?  Do you not realize that God has been on the periphery of your life for all of your life? St. Paul goes on to tell you that, “Now the words, ‘it was reckoned to him’, were written not for his sake alone, but for ours [yours] also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our [your] justification” (Romans 4: 23 to 25).   My beloved of the Lord, this is real, not just idle dreams or superstition. Faith in God will save you from eternal death. In fact, faith will bring you to eternal life where you will never cry or feel sad again. Thank You Lord Jesus.

Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to, and through, the saints of God, and then ponder anew what the Almighty can do.  John