Thursday, April 7, 2011

Matthew 5:3-16

3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
13 ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
14 ‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.


WWJD ~ "What Would Jesus Do?" This phrase has become well known, especially since it became a bumper sticker! When I hear it I tend to pause and notice a wrinkle in my brow caused by the strain of my thought. I feel like sometimes I take it too literally and become overwhelmed by the demand of meeting that task. So I need to try and be like Jesus? Are you kidding? I am not sure that is even legal given my past deeds!

On the other hand if everyone in the world stopped and said this to themselves before every life changing (even non-life changing) decision, truly only good would come from that thought. The world I think would be closer to heaven for sure.

But in everyday life it seems daunting to try and be like Jesus most of the time. What I found sometimes helpful is that I imagine to myself during pray this phrase instead, "What would Jesus tell me to do?" You know, if he were standing beside me what would he, The Shepherd, tell this sheep to do? This somehow helps me to listen better in a comforting way knowing that I am a lowly sheep to His greatness, I am better equipped in my humanness to listen, obey and follow His word.

So in short, the WWJTMTD is a bit longer and not as catchy but for me a meaningful addition to the already popular phrases of today.

This reading of Matthew is probably a favorite of many. It can be related to in an earthly way. It is special to our family, as it was one of the readings we chose to be read at our wedding many years ago.

Prayers of peace.

(GS)

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Psalm 101 

Of David. A psalm.

 ¹ I will sing of your love and justice;
   to you, LORD, I will sing praise.
² I will be careful to lead a blameless life—
   when will you come to me?

   I will conduct the affairs of my house
   with a blameless heart.
³ I will not look with approval
   on anything that is vile.

   I hate what faithless people do;
   I will have no part in it.
⁴ The perverse of heart shall be far from me;

Psalm 109

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

 ¹ My God, whom I praise,
   do not remain silent,
² for people who are wicked and deceitful
   have opened their mouths against me;
   they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
³ With words of hatred they surround me;
   they attack me without cause.

Days of Light and Darkness: Psalm 101 and 109

Remember a time when you were poised for the promise of success – a new job, a new marriage, college commencement—and you were on the crest of a wave? I am reminded of this when I read Psalm 101. Like David, as a newly crowned king, I was determined to be a respected leader, to surround myself with hardworking and honest associates and friends, and trusted that “all would be well with the world.”—or at least with my world.  I had just moved from the East Coast and was starting my own PR business in the fledgling, independent book publishing community of San Francisco. My clients published small print runs of books on gay and lesbian rights, environmental issues, the need for affordable housing, Buddhism, underground comics, New Age culture, and other decidedly California fare for the time. It was 1972.  I, too, thanked the Lord for my newly found opportunity. In my young idealism, I vowed to eschew anyone who criticized these free-wheeling, progressive causes and promised myself and God to maintain an open heart to the lost and misbegotten souls that, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, was its own ticket to happiness.  

That same year, a much more civic minded person than I had also moved to San Francisco – Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California where he won a seat on The City’s Board of Supervisors in 1977. He championed the rights of gays, lesbians, and marginalized citizens. His flamboyant campaign and early marches on City Hall were legend. If anyone was “on the crest of the wave” on Election Day, it was Harvey. He successfully fought to pass a stringent gay rights ordinance for San Francisco and was the darling of social progressives.

In many ways psalm 109, another reading for today, represents the shadow side of the world of psalm 101. King David has ruled for some years and is falsely accused and verbally attacked for his political rule.  Likewise, ultra-conservatives tried to undermine Harvey Milk and his political agenda. On a smaller, but more personal scale, mainstream newspapers refused to review my clients’ books and chain bookstores never bought them. We were dependent on the few independent bookstores, which bought the small press books on consignment. Newspapers, except for alternative weeklies like The Berkeley Free Press and The San Francisco Guardian simply ignored them and the issues they raised. We soon preferred bad ink to no ink at all.  

For Harvey Milk, the consequences of maintaining his political and personal integrity against the conservative persuasion were far more dire than mine. In fact, they proved fatal. On November 27, 1978, Supervisor Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor, who had recently resigned but wanted his job back. White’s district was described by The New York Times as “a largely white, middle-class section that is hostile to the growing homosexual community of San Francisco.” As a supervisor, White openly saw himself as the board's “defender of the home, the family and religious life against homosexuals, pot smokers and cynics.”  That day wrapped San Francisco in a shroud.

Anne Kronenberg, his final campaign manager, wrote of him: “What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us.” Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

I had opened my heart to Harvey as I had to the idealism of the small press community.  In the fall-out, I learned two things: Light can attract darkness, but if we remain in God’s spirit, we can move out into the light once again.

Note: The film, Milk, is an excellent docudrama of Harvey Milk’s political career.

(Deborah Johansen Harris)

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

In signing up for this Lenten meditation, I selected April 5th as it is my daughter's, my firstborn's, birthday.  Surely God would have some joyous words in her honor.  Boy was I wrong!  

First Jeremiah extols the rewards of keeping the Sabbath and warns of the consequences of not doing so.  Keeping the Sabbath to Jeremiah demands not doing any work, suppressing any burdens, and observing a day of rest as the commandment states.  The reward is a life of great joy.  The penalty for failure is destruction of the good life.  In my entire life, I have never strictly kept the Sabbath nor have I taught this to my children.  Parts of some days I have set aside for the Lord, but a whole day and weekly NEVER.  How sinful am I?  Is my life a mirror of destructive living? To my knowledge God has not punished me for my sinfulness (well perhaps on occasion).

 

I turned to St. Paul hoping for some positive feedback.  Ouch!  He further reminds me of my sinfulness: For I know that nothing good dwells in me...I can will what is right, but I cannot do it...I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.  No wonder I cannot follow the Sabbath commandment.  Can I blame my inability to follow a simply stated commandment, Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, on my body's dominance over my mind.  Each day I devote a good hour to keeping my body fit, but maybe my sin is that I am not exercising my mind into better spirtiual shape.  I must resolve to make God my athletic trainer to increase my spiritual fitness. Surely I can begin with an additional hour on the Sabbath.  

 

St. John confirmed the power of this resolution reminding me that I am laboring for the food that perishes, my sinful body, rather than the food which endures to eternal life, my spiritual mind.

 

As for joyous words on this 28th birthday, the Lord did not disappoint me.  The Psalms exude words of joy and hope: Be joyful in the Lord...serve the Lord with gladness...his mercy is everlasting.(100) The Lord is King, let the earth rejoice(97), Come let us sing to the Lord; let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation(95), and finally, My foot has slipped, your love, Oh Lord, upheld me (94). 

 

As I attempt my first spiritual fitness workout, I may ask my daughter to join me.

 

Jan Moran    

Monday, April 4, 2011

Monday, April 4, 2011  Fourth Week of Lent

Jeremiah 16:10-21; Romans  7:1-12;  John 6:1-15

“When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”  John 6:15

One of the themes in John’s Passion account is that this Jesus being arrested, questioned, condemned, and crucified is a king.  And John emphasizes that Jesus is not a victim in all this:  he is a king regally active in all these events. We see this when the soldiers and the temple police come to the garden to arrest him.  Taking the initiative, Jesus steps forward and speaks to them first - asking, “Who is it you want?”  Then when Jesus responds, “I am he,” these armed men draw back and fall to the ground.  Later Jesus stands before Pilate refusing to tell him where he is from.  Pilate says, “Do you refuse to speak to me?  Surely you know that I have authority…to crucify you.”  In response to this threat, Jesus tells this Roman that he would have no authority at all over him unless it was granted him from above. 

While in Mark’s passion account Jesus cries out, we might even say, screams out in agony,  in John's account Jesus speaks from the cross telling Mary his mother and John his beloved disciple to take care of one another after his death.  And, in the moments just before his dying, Jesus, rather than crying out in pain, announces, “It is accomplished.”  And, in his two final acts Jesus bows his head and gives up his spirit.  In John’s account the head of this king does not simply fall because he is lifeless, rather he bows his head, and he hands over his spirit to God.  He dies regally.

Earlier in John 6 Jesus withdraws from the people coming to make him king.  They were not recognizing the kind of king he was.  They were trying to force him into being the kind of king they wanted.  Jesus knew this and so moved away from them and their plans for him.    

Haven’t all of us been in situations in which what others wanted for us was not what we wanted to claim for ourselves?  Did we have the courage to be ourselves?  Haven’t all of us been in situations in which we tried to make someone else be what we wanted them to be?   

Did we eventually have the wisdom to stop?

   

(Rev. Janice Schuyler)

Sunday, April 3, 2011

4th Sunday in Lent.  April 3.

Psalm 66,67; Jeremiah 14:1-9,17-22; Galatians 4:21-5:1; Mark 8:11-21

 

Our focus today is on the passage of Scripture in Mark's Gospel.  We look first at the Pharisees and their challenge to Jesus, secondly, at the disciples and their lack of understanding, and finally at ourselves to discern our own level of faith.

 

It's obvious that the Pharisees' motive in putting Jesus to the test was malicious and not sincere.  I am reminded of the incident of the temptation of Jesus, in Matthew 4, when he was challenged to provide sensational proof of his identity and mission.  Jesus didn't take the bait then and neither does he here.  The Pharisees weren't looking for reassurance of Jesus' divine identity.  They wanted to expose him as an imposter.

 

The scene now switches to the disciples.  They had just experienced the miraculous "feeding of the 4,000" episode in the verses before today's reading.  Jesus caught up with them across the lake, and found them full of anxiety because they had only brought one small loaf of bread in the boat with them.  They were hungry.  Jesus said, "Why are you talking about having no bread?  Do you still not perceive or understand?"  The irony jumps out at us.  Can you hear the sadness in Jesus' voice? 

 

The Pharisees were asking for a "sign".  Actually all of Jesus' ministry was full of signs of his true identity.  People in every generation look for "signs" of God's divine presence.  Some, to be sure, with malicious intent, as with the Pharisees, to disprove Jesus as divine.  Some of us, longing for reassurance of God's redemptive love, sincerely wanting to believe but still have "eyes, and fail to see"...and "ears...and fail to hear" (8:18). 

 

Thanks be to God, the Gospels are full of riveting evidence of the divinity of Jesus, and millions of convinced people throughout the ages  have believed and acted on that belief for our benefit.  Many in this parish family unselfishly devote themselves to making Jesus Christ known as God's manifestation in our lives.

 

What IS our level of faith?

 

RAH

Saturday, April 2, 2011

A prayer of Moses the man of God.

¹² Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Rom. 6:12-23 

¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

John 8:47-59 

⁵⁸ “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

Arguably the two biggest bible writers of the ages outline a simple message. We fancy our problems, our accomplishments or ourselves too much.  Come on, let’s get some perspective!

Moses was a nationalist.  A prince of Egypt and at the height of his power and vigor, he intended to save Israel.  He killed an Egyptian, fled for 40 years and returned as an old stuttering man, as one who was called rather than one who presumed.  He knew Israel’s salvation had little to do with his power, station, strength or vigor.  Years later his prayer is for a heart of wisdom that we might relish our days.

Paul was a religious fanatic who sneered at the dead martyr Stephen.  He organized the forces of Israeli justice to persecute and murder Christians.  Full of blood lust and righteous indignation, he was struck blind on the road to Damascus to open his eyes to a God of love and mercy.  He prayed to be alive for Christ.  Both would reminisce on large tracts of their lives – I am sure – as time lost on vain ambitions. 

In my fifth decade now, my ambitions are not as grandiose as virile Moses or brilliant Paul’s.  Survive another day/week of work, hang, renew and recreate on the weekend…only to do it again.  In fact, they seem petty in comparison, but they share the attribute of self-centeredness.  Something always comes along to disturb my plans, to inconvenience my time, to knock me out of sorts.  Me, me, me, me…lost perspective!  

So here’s the message for me and I share with you:  wake up, understand the precious gift of time and be alive to Christ.  Don’t dwell in the past or fret over the future. “Now” is the moment that touches eternity.  Get lost in the present, the eternal!  Allow the Holy Spirit to massage every thought, word and deed today, so that they become sacraments for those we touch with an ear, a glance or a word.  Guilt, shame, anger, etc. are nothing more than self-centeredness, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Give someone some love today.  Share the sacrament of the new life.  Let Christ’s love flow thru and heal others.  Laugh hard, feel hard, cry hard…get lost in the Great I AM.  That is the perspective that Moses and Paul sought!   Jesus died to remove any barrier to his presence, and we died to this world at our baptism.  Let’s count our days to make them count.

(Eric Grinstead)

Friday, April 1, 2011

“With His pinion He will cover thee/ And under His wings shall thou take refuge/ His truth is a shield and a buckler.” (Ps. 91:4)

Psalm 91 is one of my favorite psalms. I love both its message and poetic imagery, especially here in verse four.

I was told once in a Bible study when we were discussing this particular psalm that verse four has direct reference to real life. Did you know, for instance, that a mother hen if she senses danger, like seeing the moving shadow of a hawk on the ground, that she will actually gather her chicks under her wings, thus protecting them from danger? What a wonderful image of love--a mother willing to sacrifice herself for her young. I know of no better definition of love than selfless service and sacrifice for the beloved.

This, in short, it the message of psalm 91. The psalmist here takes on the role of a wise person instructing his or her disciple - as one of God’s faithful followers you are under his protection. Note the key words in the verse: “shield,” “buckler,” “pinions,” “wings.” All strong and solid words, muscle words, which imply strength and protection.

Later in the psalm this message is reiterated when the psalmist proclaims: “He gives his angels over thee…Less thou dash thy foot against a stone/ Thou shalt trend on the lion and the viper/ Thou shalt trample on the lion and the serpent.” (Ps. 91:11-13)

What a wonderful message of hope we have in this psalm for the Lenten season. Put your trust in God and you have the promise of his protection in times of danger and peril.

 

(Joe Reynolds)