lest we spoil the humble pie we yearn to serve

Lest we spoil the humble pie we yearn to serve as part of the great charitable ball, let's bake with certified-organic repentance and more than just a dash of infectiously generous gratitude... all the while looking-out for spoiled self-righteousness / spiritual pride masquerading as thanksgivings to God.

·         Rather than compare ourselves to others, measure ourselves against the Gospel.

God’s grace is given freely and impartially, it’s not earned.

(article) Why funerals demand a body

"As religious connections have frayed, and our desire to confront loss has waned, the funeral service has changed accordingly.... Thomas Lynch, an undertaker and poet, and the author of the acclaimed essay collection “The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade,” believes that in adopting these newer rituals Americans have lost something important. In a new book, “The Good Funeral,” written with theologian Thomas G. Long, he makes a passionate argument for a return to the labor of the funeral—to the presence of a body and to mourners playing a role in the physical disposal of their dead, be it through burial or cremation..." "LYNCH: I see the fireside and the graveside as equivalents. That’s where we should go with them. To the edge of whatever oblivion we’re consigning them to. Whatever that space is, it’s made sacred by the fact that we’re putting our dead in it.... If you have a bunch of people gathered around an open piece of ground, and you lean [a shovel] towards someone, you don’t have to give them the operating instructions. They know what to do with it!"

http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/10/20/why-funerals-demand-body/nepmNQdKobLgIbdnu1aTDP/story.html

Bring it all to God, struggling and demanding if that’s where you are.

Committing again to persistent prayer and faithful perseverance toward truth and justice larger than ourselves, especially when we’re tempted to scratch our itchy ears with only the comfortable and like-minded familiar.

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” 

(Philippians 4:6-7 as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in The Message)

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

...and he did... and still does... untrusted foreigners, unclean outcasts, and unthankful kinsmen alike.  

We’re called to faith that makes us well.  

Let us return and praise God with a loud voice!