I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. (Phil 3:12-14 - The Message)
sermons and notes posted on this blog are not necessarily what came out of my mouth during the services, but they'll offer a sense my dance with the Holy Spirit while preparing to preach
Unattainable idols leaving you unfulfilled? Curious?
Seeking?
It’s unreasonable that God remains unknown. Overcome ignorance.
Open the eyes of your heart to see what Jesus
reveals about God’s fleshly and breath-filled intimacy with us all as well as
God’s desires for our relationships with each other.
Follow his Spirit into new life.
[ref: lectionary readings for Easter 6, Year A]
St Paul before the Proconsul by Raphael Sanzio, 1515
Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be
troubled. Believe in God. Believe in me.” (John 14:1)
Through Jesus’ example we see God’s nature –
yearning for us to be whole and acting toward us all with justice, mercy, and
steadfast love.
We're invited to follow
living stones assembling into a holy dwelling,
serving as strong rocks
ourselves,
sharing nourishing and pure spiritual milk
(genuine in faith, hope,
and mutual love),
and helping others come to the many abiding places prepared
for us in God’s house, an unbelievably big abode in which there are more
hospitality suites and living rooms than we can imagine
On this fourth Sunday of Easter (Year A), imagining God as divine mother, in all sense of that... the challenges and the comfort. Bobby McFerrin: "The 23rd Psalm is dedicated to my mother. She was the driving force in my religious and spiritual education, and I have so many memories of her singing in church. But I wrote it because I'd been reading the Bible one morning, and I was thinking about God's unconditional love, about how we crave it but have so much trouble believing we can trust it, and how we can't fully understand it. And then I left my reading and spent time with my wife and our children. Watching her with them, the way she loved them, I realized one of the ways we're shown a glimpse of how God loves us is through our mothers. They cherish our spirits, they demand that we become our best selves, and they take care of us." (from 'Sing Your Prayers: An Interview With Bobby McFerrin' by Omega Institute:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omega-institute-for-holistic-studies/bobby-mcferrin_b_1582043.html)
Bobby McFerrin's VOCAbuLarieS featuring SLIXS & Friends,
live in Gdansk, Poland at the Solidarity of Arts Festival, 17 August 2013
A Mother’s
Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe, 1870
Arise,
then, women of this day !
Arise, all women who have hearts, whether our
baptism be of water or of tears !
Say
firmly : We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies.
Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and
applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been
able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country,
will be too tender of those of another country, to allow our sons to be trained
to injure theirs.
From
the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says:
Disarm, disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does
not wipe out dishonor, nor violence vindicate possession. As men have often
forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave
all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of council.
Let
them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then
solemnly take council with each other as to the means whereby the great human
family can live in peace, man as the brother of man, each bearing after his own
kind the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
Don't the best appetizers complement the full meal to come?
Fruitful sparks can lead to a blazing fire when set within ready kindling.
Often we’re blind to resurrection and abundance all around us.
Even as our hearts hunger for what we read and hear, it’s not until they’re also fed through acts of hospitality and generosity, and when bread is broken together (particularly with those once considered strangers), that we’re able, even if only for a few lucid moments, to more fully ‘see’ the truth of Christ in our midst and taste the promise of belonging at God’s heavenly banquet prepared for us - and for all - who repent, forgive, and accept & share the gifts of the Holy Spirit as they’ve been shared with us.
On this '8th day', considering three of the things we hear the Spirit saying to God's people:
1) Walking right through barriers we keep up out of fear, our risen Lord breaths on us the very breath of God, compelling us to be born anew to a living hope.
2) We’re not to hold on to resentments toward others – retaining such ill will becomes toxic not just in our hearts, but festers like an infected sore in our collective body. Forgive others.... and experience forgiveness ourselves by opening our hearts to the grace coming from our risen Lord.
3) When doubts and times of trial test our faith, if we press forward together in love and with hope, our faith can become more genuine and mature, like gold passing through fire, fundamentally remaining unharmed while also becoming further refined and pure as more of the crap is burned away.
Through Facebook this year, a friend intro'd me to Kelley Mooney's authorized adaptation of Leonard Cohen's original Hallelujah. It hit a necessary chord this year, so I ended up downloading her published version through iTunes and using it as this Easter Sunday's Gospel processional (the hymn before the Gospel reading). The image she creates of the Roman centurion looking with fear upon his sword, turning to face his Christ and Lord (Jesus), and falling to his knees to cry alleluia, was particularly poignant, considering not only the international military actions we endlessly endure, but also the more intimate, interpersonal wars we wage daily (and ongoing, for years, in the grudges we keep). What if we each were to look with fear upon the swords we're carrying, drop them, and turn to face our Christ, falling to our knees in both repentance and joy? This combination of arresting, humble repentance and overwhelming thanksgiving and joy (that Kelley Mooney has successfully wed to Cohen's classic chords) is in holy contrast to the darker somewhat ambiguous, if not outright ambivalent and broken 'hallelujah' that the Leonard Cohen hints at in the lyrics of his haunting original (see an interview Cohen). Whereas the poetic songwriter Cohen seems to have been suggesting a cathartic (even orgasmic) utterance that reflexively bursts forth from the dark nights of our souls as a dim glimmer of innate hope (E.g., cover by K.D. Lang), the inspired Kelley Mooney utilizes his same emotional original chords while singing with new, more explicit words right into the brilliant, holy light of Easter, inviting us to join a heavenly chorus of thanksgiving and praise that can melt the hearts of even the most stoic soldiers (ref: Kelley's explanation of her journey with this song). "But as they went to move the stone, they saw that they were not alone... but Jesus Christ has risen, Hallelujah!"
After waving of the palms has ceased and the shouts have subsided... while the haunting cry of 'forsaken' still echos from atop the cross (challenging us to consider who has abandoned whom)... we also enter this week reciting the rest of Psalm 22, including: “Yet you are holy... In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.... For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted.... The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever!” (Psalm 22: 3-5, 26)
