Lectionary October 11, 2015, Year B Proper 23 Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Job 22:1-9; 16-17, Amos 5:6-7;10-15, Psalm 90:12-17, Hebrews 4:12-16, Mark 10-17-31

Our daughter received the diagnosis: breast cancer. She is the first baby I bathed in the kitchen sink even before I knew how. She is 43 and has two children aged ten and nine. It is not right. It is not fair. It makes me angry. Like Job I look everywhere for God, but cannot find him. Alternatively, perhaps I know what he might say, so I do not want to find him.

Amos reminds me “Raw truth is never popular.” That is true whether it comes from the mouth of a doctor or the Word of God.

Paul’s letter to the Hebrews tells me “What God says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey.”

How often do I kneel and ask God to fix a situation, to heal a loved one, to give me what I want? Then I am surprised and taken aback when God does answer, but it requires more of me than I think I can give, much like the rich young ruler in Mark. Where is my humility? Where is my desire to be a living sacrifice? Where did I forget God is always God, and I am not?

So, I go from my knees to lying prone. My tears soak my pillow. I become still. I become quiet. I try to listen to God’s voice and silence my own. I remember Moses’s prayer recorded in the Psalms. “Teach us to live well,” I read the passages in the Gospel of Mark that record Jesus saying, “Go, let everything go. Come, follow me.”

I cannot change the diagnosis. I cannot change whatever the outcome will be. I can only let my child go into the arms of Jesus, into the care of others, from the bathtub to the surgical table, into God’s unfailing love.

Thought for the Day: Allow us, you and I, to listen and obey.

Prayer:
Eternal One, whose thoughts and ways are not ours, you alone are God, awesome, holy, and most high. School us in the ways of faith and wisdom that we may learn to truly see and hear, and in humility find blessing. Amen.

Pray for those who are grieving.

Lectionary Readings: Proper 23 – 20^th Sunday After Pentecost Year B – October 11, 2015 www.lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu [retrieved October 5, 2015].

Bible: verses adapted from The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Prayer: adapted from The Revised Common Lectionary and Prayers ©2002 Augsburg Fortress Press.

Art: Israëls, Jozef, 1824-1911. The Day before Parting, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=50323 [retrieved October 5, 2015]. Original source: http://www.mfa.org/.

Righteousness

There is value, great value, in living according to God’s law. Happy are those who avoid unrighteous behavior. The effect of the righteous life is one's unwavering commitment to God’s word. To be “righteous” is to have a “healthy relationship” with God, to live wisely.

To live righteously, is to live a decent life, that is reputable, moralistic, noble, principled, right-minded, and virtuous. To live righteously, is to live a good life that is virtuous, exemplary, guiltless, inculpable, innocent, irreproachable, and pure. Righteousness is doing that which is just, acting rightly or justly; conforming to the standard of the divine or the moral law; to be just and upright, free from sin.  When one lives righteously, one lives a life without prejudice; characterize by evenness.

I remember. when we did a “hunger weekend” with the youth group. On Friday night,  we went without supper and spent the night carrying everything we brought with us in large garbage bags. We moved from place to place in the church and read aloud the prophets, the psalms, and the gospels. The next morning we went to the local grocery store and gathered a box of vegetables left by the dumpster. I remember the turned up noses, the “eeww’s,” the “I’m not eating THAT.” We cleaned and cut off moldy places and soft parts and put them all in a pot with water to simmer. That was breakfast.

We went to a soup kitchen in a nearby town to help serve lunch. The smell of unwashed bodies was offensive. When a mother, in apparent drug withdrawal, brought her four- or five- year-old son through the  food line, one could see the righteous indignation on the faces of the youth group. We went back to the church fellowship hall.  We compared what we had seen and felt to the scriptures we had read. We talked about their outraged sense of justice, decency and fair play, their sense of righteous indignation.

Trusting God in different ways came out of that indignation. All of them have mentioned that weekend to us at one time or another. For some,  it helped God call them into ministry as pastors and social workers, but for all, it changed the way they viewed others.

Every day  is an opportunity to trust God in different ways. In the midst of daily life,one can increase  trust in God, confidently and faithfully, knowing one's life is enfolded in God’s attention and love.

God is a God of power, wisdom and authority, John Wesley saw over an over the spirit of bondage transformed to the spirit of adoption as we awaken to our sin. God does not force conversion on us. We must seek adoption. However it is only God who can complete the transformation.

It is God who, hearing one's cries and caring for all like a good parent, now infuses life with “heavenly healing light.” Hearts are strangely warmed, so one's consciousness is dominated no longer by sin and law, but by God’s capacity to love, heal and make new.

We have the experience of most adopted children: once we feel abandoned to the powers and principalities, but now we can count on the kindness and support of a loving parent. Once we were bound to fear, but now we are marked with the holiness and happiness of the family of God

The “good news” is the proclamation of God’s kingdom, manifested in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. “Repentance” is not just a feeling of regret, but an ordering of one’s life as to be acceptable to God. Jesus himself receives baptism by John, joining this group of people who have ritually dedicated themselves to righteousness; to true religion.

We must not substitute rituals for Christ-centered faith. Instead, we should enter into  a life of rigorous discipline of study prayer and good works. True religion is a matter of the heart and is characterized by Spirit-inspired joy, holiness, and peace. To John Wesley, these were the irrefutable marks of the kingdom of God.

I encourage you to choose a short passage of scripture that stops or strangely warms your heart. Meditate on those words. Write them on a card and keep them  with you. Write them, with soap, on your mirror. To meditate on God’s word literally means to mumble or utter it under the breath.

Romanian Orthodox Chant - Psalm 1,2,3 at Putna Monastery

by danteselu•5 years ago•195,274 views

www.sfantulioanrusul.ro Psalm 1,2,3 at Putna Monastery, Romania 

God's Righteous Servant. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.defendproclaimthefaith.org/gods_righteous_servant.htm

 "An outline of a Bible-school curriculum". (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.archive.org/stream/outlineofbiblesc00peas/outlineofbiblesc00peas_djvu.txt

Reflecting on Our Faith - UMC.org, http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.2310045/k.4A66/Reflecting_on_Our_Faith.htm

(accessed January 14, 2013

Kim Hill - Psalm 1 Uploaded on Apr 30, 2007 Call to worship based on Psalm 1 Visit us at www.phillycgc.org

“righteous.” equitable." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (14 Jan. 2013).

Monday, January 14, 2013

Psalm 1, 2, 3, 4, 7

Isaiah 40:12-23

Ephesians 1:1-14

Mark 1:1-13

Daily Readings from The Voice, the internet web site of CRI/Voice, Christian Resource Institute, a global and ecumenical ministry dedicated to providing biblical and theological resources for growing Christians. www.crivoice.org Readings based on the Revised Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer.

The Wesley Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2009. 

Valusoft 10418 Living Word Bible (Google Affiliate Ad)

BrylaneHome Plus+Size Living Heavy-Duty Steel Cane (METAL) (Google Affiliate Ad)

Descriptions Devotions Directions

Wright, Yvonne Pat. From Spice to Eternity: Discovering the Main Ingredient to a Life of Fulfillment and Purpose.  Cambridge, England: Vanguard Press: Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie Publishers Ltd., 2010.

Yvonne Pat Wright opens her cupboards, her kitchen, and her heart. She gives the reader descriptions and uses (historical and present day) of herbs and spices. The use of the spice or herb  reminds her of a story about people she has known, places she has been, or things she has experienced or discovered. Then, she gives the reader a recipe that used the herb or spice as a main ingredient. But, throughout, she is sharing what it has taken to make her relationship with Jesus grow and last. Then she shares a recipe featuring the herb or spice that began the chapter.

From Spice to Eternity is delightful and delectable. The reader is sure to mark their place with a costmary leaf; experiment with creating their own curry powder; fill their kitchen with the aromas of culinary delights from around the world, and will be encouraged to find the main ingredient (Jesus Christ) to fill their lives with a wonderful, lasting difference. In her author’s note that concludes the book she says, “Long after the taste of the recipes have faded, Jesus’ loves still remains.

Wright’s style of writing is informal and invitational encouraging the reader to come and taste not only an Aromatic Milk Bath, Baked Ripe Bananas, and Rye Bread, but to come to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb to enjoy the Bread of Life. The Table of Contents is a guide to the stories and the index locates each of the recipes. The only things missing are a list of herbs and spices and an index of scripture references.

Whether interested in botany and gardening, filling the kitchen spice rack, or listening to or reading well-developed clearly-articulated stories of Truth that are both thought provoking and memorable, the reader will come away with an overall experience which touches the taste buds and the heart.

Wright was born in Jamaica, migrated to the United Kingdom living in Buckinghamshire, and returned home to her native city of Kingstown. Most of her studies and working life she spent in communicating through various positions in advertising, radio and television; and writing through publication of a church magazine, Bible lesson studies, and crafting sermons. Her biography in From Spice to Eternity says “She has won the hearts of daughters, grandsons and nieces as well as several ‘adopteds’ with her hearty home cooked meals, delicately spiced and served up with healthy doses of the value of Christian living.

Digging Deeper

What do we dig for?

What do we use to dig?

Where do you dig?

Why do we dig?

What would you do if you wanted to go deeper?

What problems might you encounter?

Imagine there is a 20-ton meteorite buried on a 300-foot deep ice shelf. 

Imagine that the core samples have produced fossils.

What do you know about the characteristics of meteors? 

Where do they come from how do they get here? 

What would fossils inside a meteorite mean? 

What would the possible treasure be? 

Would it be worth extracting?  Why?

Ice shelves are over open water; they are fragile; you couldn’t use heavy machinery.

Sometimes we have to be creative and find new ways to dig or to dig deeper.

How would you extract the meteorite?

Read Psalm 51:10-12

            Micah 6:8

            Proverbs 2:4&5

Brother Lawrence was a 17^th century soldier turned monk whose lifelong endeavor was to dwell completely in the presence of God.  “He sought God in the simplicity and the sincerity of his heart….[ He said] ‘…People seek for methods of learning to love God.  They hope to arrive at it by I know not how many different practices; they take much trouble to remain in the presence of God in a quantity of ways.  Is it not much shorter and more direct to do everything for the love of God, to make use of all the labors of one’s state in life to show Him that love, and to maintain His presence within us by this communion of our hearts with His?  There is no finesse about it; one has only to do it generously and simply…. During my work I would always continue to speak to the Lord as though He were right there with me, offering Him my services and thanking Him for His assistance.’…Brother Lawrence called the practice of the presence of God the easiest and shortest way to attain Christian perfection and to be protected from sin.”

From the beginning of time, God has asked for our tithe, our first fruits, our first born all to be set-aside for God.  We have been given many gifts (Matt 25:14-15), God asks us to be good stewards of those gifts (Luke 19:13, 1 Corinthians 4:12).  Accountability is connected to stewardship. (Luke 12:48) Remember that we are God’s treasured possession if we obey Him fully and keep his covenants (Ex 19:5).

Jaime Rickert wrote a song.

Push out into deeper water; Bigger fish are swimming there.

Forgive again; forgive forever.

Blessings are the pearls that only empty hands can hold.

I encourage you to push out into deeper water.  Let go of those things that keep you from digging for the treasures that God has in store for you.  He has told you that you are his treasure, he expects you to give, to forgive, and to be good stewards of the gifts he has given you.  And remember that as you live in the presence of God you will continue empty your hands, so that you can hold the Blessings He has for you.

It Hurt's Too Much, Thursday Evening, Week 4

There are days when the pain is too great. Days when you can't wrap your mind or bend your self far enough to touch the other side. Those days, it seems are more days of uncommon pain than even common prayer can hold. It feels like living inside Lent forever, wondering if there will ever be another Hallelujah, broken or otherwise. Today is one of those days.

Psalm 91 reminds us that our days are few in number, that we have little time to get our affairs in order. But it also tells us with certainty that God is our deliverer in time of danger, so we need not fear. God promises to  deliver, protect, answer. He promises to be with us, rescue us and honor us. And though our days will be few, we will be satisfied with long life, and shown his salvation. All we must do is love Him, know His unspeakable name, and call out to Him.

In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! who took on flesh
Fulness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied -
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave he rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

Thursday Evening, Week 4

In Christ Alone lyrics by Stuart Townend, Keith Getty

Snakes: Lent, Week 4, Sunday, Year B

Through Jesus Christ our Lord; who was in every way tempted as we .are, yet did not sin; by whose grace we are able to triumph over every evil, and to live no longer unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again. 

Numbers 21:4-9                              Ephesians 2:1-10                          John 3:14-21

 I grew up in the Panhandle of Texas.  Just beyond our house was a vacant lot.  By late July or early August the grass was tall, dry and rattled in the hot, dry wind.  But, at the back of the lot was a small concrete slab shaded by an elm tree; perfect for playing marbles.  I knew I wasn’t supposed to go there. I was barefoot. Watching for sticker patches.  Watching for red ant beds.

I became irritable and cross.  I felt something slither across my foot.  There was the rattler end of a diamondback disappearing into the grass.  My next step would put me in a rattlesnake nest filled with hatchlings, small but many, and poisonous.  I screamed.  Daddy came.  I expected a spanking. I got picked up and embraced with incredible love.  Saved.

The children of Israel were up to their stiff necks in deadly snakes.  God suddenly had their full attention.  Suffer your consequences but “look up and be healed.” (Numbers 21:4-9 MSG)

The Ephesians were up to their necks in disobedience. “It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy … he embraced us … made us alive in Christ.”  (Ephesians 2:1-10 MSG)

Jesus said to Nicodemus “In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert…it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up – and everyone who looks up to him…will gain a real life, eternal life.”  (John 3:14-21 MSG) Saved.  

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen