onewhoponders

Daily Office Readings for Thursday after the First Sunday of Lent: Year 2

Psalm 50;  Psalm [59, 60] or 19, 46 Gen. 39:1-23; 1 Cor. 2:14-3:15; Mark 2:1-12

“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? (Mark 2: 9)

Even today, in most cases, medical science is not able to restore nerve tissue that enables a paralyzed person to walk again when that nerve has been severed. So forgiving others, while not impossible, is the easier of the two.

Forgiveness can be taught in the family but often a household will tend to see the incident the same way and forgiveness is hard to come by.

Maybe forgiveness begins in the church with corporate pardon. The classic example of this is the Amish community of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and the milk truck driver and their school house. “On 2 October 2006, 10 Amish girls were shot in their school house by Joanna Walters in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.  Five died and five survived – and their families immediately bestowed their forgiveness.” (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/02/amish-shooting)

We should practice forgiveness individually.  But perhaps it starts in our spiritual families. The continual reading, studying, discussing and, above all, praying, about forgiveness will help all of us to at least look at the healing power of forgiveness. But folks, you have to want it.

Maybe forgiveness of self and others is the first step to nerve regeneration. Maybe, just maybe, our Lord Jesus had it right all along, “Your sins are forgiven, stand up and take your mat and walk”?

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 after the First Sunday of Lent: Year 2

Psalm 119:49-72; Psalm 49, [53]  Gen. 37:25-36; 1 Cor. 2:1-13; Mark 1:29-45

“In the morning, while it was still very dark, he [Jesus] got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.”  (Mark 1:35)

Whether you believe our Lord Jesus is God Incarnate or the Son of God apart from God, you must take note of Jesus’ life of prayer.  The praying referred to in the passage above is tucked between healings.  On one side, before he prayed, “he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons.” (Mark 1: 34)  On the other side, after he prayed, he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. (Mark 1: 39)  This work of healing and casting out demons was fortified by prayer.

In these acts of prayer our Lord Jesus is teaching us the power of prayer as well as the importance of prayer. The Mystic, Evelyn Underhill, writes “We pray first because we believe something; perhaps at that stage a very crude or vague something.  And with the deepening of prayer, its patient cultivation, there comes – perhaps slowly, perhaps suddenly – the enrichment and enlargement of belief, as we enter into a first-hand communion with the Reality who is the object of our faith.” (Lent with Evelyn Underhill p.17; taken from The School of Charity)

You and I are products of God’s prayer.  God began creation by praying.  God’s words were “let there be” as witnessed in the opening of Genesis. With such words all creation was called into being.  The same “Word” that called all creation into being took on human form and dwelt among us. “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.” (John 1: 1- 3) 

Everything about us comes from prayer, God’s prayer. We are prayer.  Therefore we surely ought to be praying.  God still prays.  In fact, we never initiate prayer to God.  Given that God prays first, when we pray, we are always responding to God. This is true even when we think we are asking for something for the first time.  God is always ahead of us knowing our need before we ask.  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

Readings for John and Charles Wesley (March 3)

Psalm 98 Isaiah 49:5-6  Luke 9:2-6 

“And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength”  (Isaiah 49:5)

Today we remember the Wesley brothers, John and Charles.  But I am going a bit deeper.  Susanna Wesley, their mother, really deserves the credit.  “Under their mother’s tutelage, all of the Wesley children were schooled each day in six-hour sessions, always begun and concluded with the singing of Psalms.” Although credited with starting Methodism, the denomination was actually started after their deaths. The formal separation of the Methodists from the Church of England occurred after the deaths of the two brothers in London. (Great Cloud of Witnesses for March 3)

The below is taken from: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanna_Wesley) concerning the life of Susanna Wesley:

Susanna experienced many hardships throughout her life. Her husband left her and the children for over a year because of a minor dispute.

To her absent husband, Susanna Wesley wrote:

I am a woman, but I am also the mistress of a large family. And though the superior charge of the souls contained in it lies upon you, yet in your long absence I cannot but look upon every soul you leave under my charge as a talent committed to me under a trust. I am not a man nor a minister, yet as a mother and a mistress I felt I ought to do more than I had yet done. I resolved to begin with my own children; in which I observe the following method: I take such a proportion of time as I can spare every night to discourse with each child apart. On Monday I talk with Molly, on Tuesday with Hetty, Wednesday with Nancy, Thursday with Jacky, Friday with Patty, Saturday with Charles.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanna_Wesley)  I had read before that Susanna had spent at least an hour alone with each of her children.  As a result, many of them grew up to be very successful.  Some died as infants. She had nearly twenty children but did not let that stop her from giving quality time to each.

While this day is dedicated to John and Charles Wesley, I wanted to show the source of their greatness, their mother, Susanna Wesley.  As Isaiah says, they were formed in her womb and her God has become their strength. (Isaiah 49:5)

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 Monday after the First Sunday of Lent: Year 2

Psalm 41, 52; PM Psalm 44 Gen. 37:1-11; 1 Cor. 1:1-19; Mark 1:1-13

“Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locust and wild honey.” (Mark 1:6)

Now the locust pods from which John ate was a pod-bearing tree of the family that includes the honey locust, swamp locust, and carob. Family: Leguminosae.  For many years I thought John was eating grass hoppers.  I used to love telling John the Baptist stories to children and hearing them say “yuk” at the thought of eating wild grass hoppers.  It wasn’t until I visited Israel that I learned that the locust pod with honey was what John was eating.  John was an outsider, and a vegetarian it seems.  He dressed rough even by the standards of his day.  What’s important about John the Baptist is that he emptied himself in order create space for what God wanted. A cup or a glass or a bowl is no good to us if it’s full.  Only an empty vessel is good for holding the food or drink we need.

There were so many people of power in John’s day that were full of themselves. And God knows who is receptive to the Word of God. Listen to the opening of chapter 3 of Luke again, “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”  (Luke 3: 1 – 2)

Notice that while so many were full of themselves with their human titles, John was away from all that, living in the wilderness, free to go and announce the coming of our Lord Jesus.  The wilderness was not so far removed that the word of God could not reach him.  The same is true today.  Each and every one of us should have some “alone” time.  Remember the quote from Blaise Pascal,   “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”  John sat quietly off to himself eating his sweet cereal and pondering about the Good News he was about to bring to the world, to us.  We must look past how his life was ended in human terms.

We might look at his dress and food and consider him impoverished.  But I’ll bet he was happier than most of his day.  Jesus would later come to say “don’t worry about what you will wear or what you will eat.  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25)  John did not consider himself poor.  He had all he needed, and so do most of us. What we really need is some quiet, alone time.                                                                                                

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

Eucharistic Readings for the First Sunday of Lent: Year A

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7  Psalm 32  Romans 5:12-19  Matthew 4:1-11

“It is written.” (Matthew 4:1-11)

God writes the Ten Commandments to Moses for the freed Israelites, of which, the first four are about our relationship with God.

All of the written laws are written in a language and our lord Jesus responds with those written words about our relationship with God. We are to have the deepest love we can for God.

Jesus reduces the Commandments to two and later writes something in the dirt regarding the woman caught in adultery.  (John 8:6 – 8) “Afterwards, he [Jesus] straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.” (John 8: 10-11)

We, Episcopalians have been called the “People of the Book,” perhaps because of our fondness of our Book of Common Prayer. There was a time when Confirmation classes required Confirmands to remember the Outline of Faith or the Catechism (p. 845 of the BCP). The Catechism is a series of questions and answers that covers the range of what Episcopalians are supposed to believe.  The bishop, when he or she comes on the big day, would ask the questions and the Confirmand would answer. The teaching rector would stand back nervously hoping the Confirmands would answer all, or most of them correctly.  Having some of it memorized today is still maybe not a bad thing.

Our Lord Jesus’ response can also be reduced down to His twin commandments of Love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself.  This Commandment is reminiscent of the first part of the Jewish “Shema,” that is “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all strength.”  (Exodus 6:4-5)  And to this, our Lord Jesus adds “and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Personally, I like the words of the Gospel of John where our Lord Jesus says for us to love our Neighbor as He loved us.  And remember, He loved us all the way to the cross.  I like saying “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.”  This is my creed.

So much is written that we could quote, especially in our times of challenge. Whether the source is the Bible or the Prayer Book, or a combination of both, or words that you have crafted for yourself as I have, latch onto something that will anchor you to right behavior as Jesus did. He said “it is written,” and thus thwarted evil.  Even if you write it, you will be able to say, “For, it is written.”  

Another “written” saying I have is:

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 February 29, 2020

Psalm 30, 32; PM Psalm 42, 43 Ezek. 39:21-29; Phil. 4:10-20; John 17:20-26

“Do not be like horse or mule, which have no understanding; who must be fitted with bit and bridle, or else they will not stay near you.” (Psalm 32:10)

I remember once having Morning Prayer with two other seminarians while in seminary and reading this Psalm.  We laughed as all three of us thought of people that we too would have to be fitted with bit and bridle, or else we would not stay near them.  But it was because we did indeed have understanding, and that we were loving, that we stayed near them even when it was uncomfortable.

The metaphor of bit and bridle may in fact be a good way of looking at how God holds us close to God’s will.  We often don’t have understanding.  Often we don’t know the will of God and when God reveals just a little of it to us, we run.  We become like Jonah trying to avoid Nineveh.

I think the point of the Psalmist is that not having understanding keeps us in fear. We don’t realize the power of God’s forgiveness. We need to stay near the rough un-comfortableness of God and be patient until understanding finally comes.

There was a time in my life when I did not want one of my daughters to be pregnant.  But she was.  I could feel a prayer welling up in my gut to ask God to not let her be pregnant because she was still a senior in high school.  But she was. She gave birth to her first born.  Alex.  Alex is a gift from God to us.  I love my granddaughter so much.  So glad that God gave me what I needed rather than what I asked for.  I am so glad God fitted me with bit and bridle, or else I would not have stayed near God.  I had no understanding.

Is there any lack of understanding in your life that causes you to want to move away from God? God will fit you with that bit and bridle and hold you close unless you turn and run to your own peril. We as seminarians learned that while this verse sounds funny, holding on to what God wants for us is as serious as it gets. Every human being has a story, or two, or more, of challenge. We need to tell these stories as did the prophets of the Bible. Our stories help others know that God holds us close – bit and bridle close.  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

Daily Office Readings for February 29, 2020

Psalm 30, 32; PM Psalm 42, 43 Ezek. 39:21-29; Phil. 4:10-20; John 17:20-26

“Do not be like horse or mule, which have no understanding; who must be fitted with bit and bridle, or else they will not stay near you.” (Psalm 32:10)

I remember once having Morning Prayer with two other seminarians while in seminary and reading this Psalm.  We laughed as all three of us thought of people that we too would have to be fitted with bit and bridle, or else we would not stay near them.  But it was because we did indeed have understanding, and that we were loving, that we stayed near them even when it was uncomfortable.

The metaphor of bit and bridle may in fact be a good way of looking at how God holds us close to God’s will.  We often don’t have understanding.  Often we don’t know the will of God and when God reveals just a little of it to us, we run.  We become like Jonah trying to avoid Nineveh.

I think the point of the Psalmist is that not having understanding keeps us in fear. We don’t realize the power of God’s forgiveness. We need to stay near the rough un-comfortableness of God and be patient until understanding finally comes.

There was a time in my life when I did not want one of my daughters to be pregnant.  But she was.  I could feel a prayer welling up in my gut to ask God to not let her be pregnant because she was still a senior in high school.  But she was. She gave birth to her first born.  Alex.  Alex is a gift from God to us.  I love my granddaughter so much.  So glad that God gave me what I needed rather than what I asked for.  I am so glad God fitted me with bit and bridle, or else I would not have stayed near God.  I had no understanding.

Is there any lack of understanding in your life that causes you to want to move away from God? God will fit you with that bit and bridle and hold you close unless you turn and run to your own peril. We as seminarians learned that while this verse sounds funny, holding on to what God wants for us is as serious as it gets. Every human being has a story, or two, or more, of challenge. We need to tell these stories as did the prophets of the Bible. Our stories help others know that God holds us close – bit and bridle close.  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

(Edited from last year’s Pondering)

Readings for Anna Julia Haywood Cooper: Educator 1964

Psalm 119:33–40 Proverbs 9:1-6 Luke 4:14-21

 “Lay aside immaturity and live, and walk in the way of insight.” (Proverbs 9:6)

It is not my custom to copy and paste an entire biography but the Episcopal Women’s History Project did such a wonderful job of reporting on Anna Julia Haywood Cooper, with detail and brevity, that I decided to just give it all to you and end with my very brief comment.

“Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (August 10, c1859- February 27, 1964). Educator, advocate and scholar. Born in Raleigh, North Carolina to an enslaved woman and a white man, presumably her mother’s master. Anna Julia was an academically gifted child and received a scholarship to attend St. Augustine Normal School and Collegiate Institute, a school founded by the Episcopal Church to educate African-American teachers and clergy. There she began her membership in the Episcopal Church. After forcing her way into a Greek class designed for male theology students, Anna Julia later married the instructor, George A.C. Cooper, the second African-American ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in North Carolina. After her husband’s death in 1879, Cooper received degrees in mathematics from Oberlin College, and was made principal of the only African American high school in Washington D.C.  She was denied reappointment in 1906 because she refused to lower her educational standards. Throughout her career, Cooper emphasized the importance of education to the future of African Americans, and was critical of the lack of support they received from the church. An advocate for African-American women, Cooper assisted in organizing the Colored Women’s League and the first Colored Settlement House in Washington, D.C. She wrote and spoke widely on issues of race and gender, and took an active role in national and international organizations founded to advance African Americans.  At the age of fifty-five she adopted the five children of her nephew. In 1925, Cooper became the fourth African-American woman to complete a PhD degree, granted from the Sorbonne when she was sixty-five years old. From 1930-1942, Cooper served as president of Frelinghuysen University.” (From the Episcopal Women’s History Project)

There are many take-aways here but most notable is the idea that it is never too late to continue one’s education.  This is the idea of life-long-learning. Dr. Cooper got her PhD when she was sixty-five. She lived to 105 years of age.  I say, keep the brain alive and working. She also had a heart that moved her to do for others which caused her real self denial.  She is an example of agape love. 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

Readings for George Herbert

Psalm 23 1 Peter 5:1–4  Matthew 5:1-10 

“Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it—not for sordid gain but eagerly. Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock.”  (1 Peter 5:1 – 3)

Today, February 27, we remember George Herbert, a priest, who died in 1633.  “George Herbert is famous for his poems and his prose work, A Priest to the Temple: or The Country Parson. He is portrayed by his biographer Izaak Walton as a model of the saintly parish priest.  Herbert was unselfish in his devotion and service to others. Izaak Walton writes that many of the parishioners “let their plow rest when Mr. Herbert’s saints-bell rung to prayers, that they might also offer their devotion to God with him.” His words, “Nothing is little in God’s service,” have reminded Christians again and again that everything in daily life, small or great, may be a means of serving and worshiping God. Herbert died on March 1, 1633.”  (Great Cloud of Witnesses for February 27)

These dedicated priests, St. Peter and George Herbert are among those I consider my heroes. I try to emulate their dedication to our Lord Jesus as Peter exhorts me “to tend the flock of God that is in my charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have me do it—not for sordid gain but eagerly.”  And as Herbert was unselfish in his devotion and service to others realizing that nothing is little in God’s service. 

The message today is that we don’t have to be clergy to be the elders of our community.  In fact clergy can learn to be better clergy from non-clergy, from the laity.  There are good, God-fearing people woven throughout our lives.  I see them in homes and hospitals and stores and yes, in the pews at Church.  They are doing God’s work realizing nothing is little in God’s service.  These people are truly hidden figures.  In many cases we don’t consider them for clergy positions because we don’t want to be without them even for the short time of their training. And, we can’t stand the thought that when they are ordained, we might lose them to another community. All this is kind of selfish. But let’s not get hung up on ordination. 

While Peter and Herbert were ordained, the “why” of their lives is really what moved them to do the Lord’s work.  The “why” of their lives was not limited to ordination.  These men prayed.  And God heard them. God hears your prayers.  Herbert was unselfish in his devotion and service to others. One does not have to be ordained to be devoted to the welfare of others.  I see the loving support our parishioners extend to one another all the time.  And while they may not have any ordained title here in our time, I am certain that they are already saints on the roster of heaven.

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

Eucharistic Readings for Ash Wednesday (All Years)

Joel 2:1-2,12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12 Psalm 103 or 103:8-14  2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10  Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

“But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”  (Mathew 6:3 – 4)

Here we are in Lent again.  Today starts Lent with Ash Wednesday. Many times people will come up to me to proclaim what they are giving up for Lent. They let their left hand know what their right hand is doing.  I then ask, to what charity is the money you would have used on your creature comforts, going to? There is always a pause.  Rarely is anyone thinking, in advance, about the charitable side of doing without in order to give to the less fortunate.

We should always have our eyes set on the “why” we are doing something rather than the “what” we are doing. Lent is a Church tradition.  It is not biblical.  We are reminded by Richard Hooker (Reformation, 17^th Century Church of England Priest) that our 3-legged stool consist of Scripture, Tradition and Reason.  Tradition then is where practice of Lent comes from. Why? It is our Church’s historic way of reconciling folk back into the fold and reminding all of us of the sacrifice our Lord Jesus made for our salvation.

Lent will not be “celebrated” with fancy sales or special ornaments.  Lent can’t be purchased or hijacked with sleighs or bunnies.  This is the season in which the Church is at its purest. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. It ends with Palm Sunday or the Sunday of the Passion which is the beginning of Holy Week which leads us into the Sunday of the Resurrection – Easter. All of this is part of our Church Tradition.  Lent is a memory milestone wherein we remember the suffering of our Lord Jesus and reorient ourselves back to the importance of corporate worship.

The ashes on our foreheads remind us that we are dust and ashes made up of the chemicals found throughout the earth and the universe. But with the Holy Spirit of God imbedded in us we are so much more.  It is during Lent that we give thanks by emptying ourselves of all that is not necessary for our wellbeing and at the same time contributing to the welfare of the less fortunate who are also created in the Image of God.  And we do not do this in a boastful way.  “But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” 

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