tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36329953358398979912024-03-08T16:26:09.096-08:00rodgewoodblogRodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.comBlogger311125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-38531798696529139782018-12-01T13:07:00.005-08:002018-12-01T13:07:52.639-08:00Our Mission in This World<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> There have been a number of times
when I have been worried for this world.
With all of the arguments with North Korea, the possibility of nuclear
war loomed for a while. It still isn’t
out of the picture and it could still happen.
The killing of the Washington Post reporter at the hands of the Saudi
Arabians was an awful thing to see.
Again, it made me wonder about what was on the horizon. Then there are
the families at our border wanting asylum in the United States because of the
oppression in their native Central American countries who are having their
children taken from them and are living in terrible conditions as they are
repeatedly refused entrance in to this country.
As a country of immigrants, we ought to bee able to do something to take
care of their needs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> This is a confusing time that we are
living in. World peace seems more
elusive than ever and fear is not easily put aside. This is certainly a time when my faith is
more important to me than ever. Here in
the season of Advent there is certainly hope that our Lord and our God will
work to take care of creation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The scriptures that we hear on this
day are promises to us by our creator that even though the world seems to be in
chaos and that we are all in danger of losing all that we have, our God is
close and will take care of us all. Even
though our Lord Jesus was crucified and buried, we know that on the third day
he rose from the grave and appeared to his disciples and to many so that they
knew again his joyful presence. Our God
tells us that he will come again to bring life where we only see death and give
back to God’s people all that they have lost.
We call this the “second coming” and we recite it in our creed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Despite all of the chaos in the
world, God’s love will triumph over all.
The poorest of the poor have always been dear to our God. Jesus took care of the poor constantly. In our faith, we are asked to do the
same. This is the way that God’s love is
shown to the world. You and I are the
instruments of God’s purpose. While we
wait for God to finally make all things right in this world, we have the means
to make lives brighter for those who hurt.
Taking dinner to the people housed at one of the shelters in our town is
one way that this has been done. Another
is taking coats to places where they can be given to people who need them for
warmth this winter. There are many other
ways that show themselves to each of us daily.
Giving of ourselves for the benefit of others is God’s will for all of
us. There is certainly enough greed in
this world. Making life easier for those
who have nothing is the basis of our faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">God
bless us in our lives and our ministry to others as we move toward the birth of
our savior.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">May our Christmas be a joy</span> </div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-36678653394083887412018-10-31T11:45:00.003-07:002018-10-31T11:45:44.543-07:00Love to Counter Hatred<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> All
of us have been deeply affected by the horrible killing of the people
worshipping at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill this past week by a
man who told the world how much he hated the Jewish people and that he was
“going in” to do something about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
something was to take four guns with him into the sanctuary of the synagogue
and to kill eleven people and to wound four others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was wounded himself and taken to the
hospital under guard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many charges were
filed against him and he faces severe punishment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This event happened in the wake of
the mailing of pipe bombs to a large number of critics of President Donald
Trump by a man who is connected to radical right-wing organizations who value
white supremacy above everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
incredible eruption of hatred is coming as we near the midterm elections with
all of the name calling and destructive speech that seems<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to be connected to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The very idea of one of the candidates
promising to dig golf spikes into the face of his opponent reminds us of how divisive
the politics in this country is becoming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s almost as if we want to continue the Civil War with its hatred of
African Americans or World War II with the massacre of six million Jews at the
hands of the Nazis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In each of these
historical events there was tremendous loss of life as we set out to rectify
the damage that hatred was doing to this world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s not like hatred is a new thing;
it’s been with us as long as we have had creation in this world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hatred has fueled most of the struggles in
history and has caused enormous grief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This latest eruption is another reminder of the work that we need to do
as human beings and as Christians to make the world that our God created to be
a reflection of God’s kingdom and not a place where we work our flawed will for
our own benefit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In Mark’s gospel is a wonderful
dialogue between Jesus and one of the scribes who had been listening to the
Sadducees disputing with one another and who has asked Jesus “which is the
greatest commandment?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus gave him
the answer that we have all heard from our Lord’s teaching; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love the Lord your God with all of your
heart, soul, mind and strength.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
the first and greatest commandment and the second is like unto it:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>love your neighbor as a person like yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On these two commandments hang all of the law
and the prophets.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>These are beautiful words and are
the answer to the hatred that exists in this world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know how many times that Jesus told
us to love one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the
essence of the New Testament and the reason that Jesus came among us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He gave his life for all of humanity by dying
on the cross condemned by the hatred of the authorities whom he confronted, and
subsequently rose from the dead on Easter morning as a revelation to us of what
God has in mind for us when we finish this life on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus’ life and ministry was a wonderful
expression of love for all of God’s creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His example hopefully will remind us of how to conduct ourselves when
hatred abounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-18572016553851256472018-08-25T07:11:00.005-07:002018-08-25T07:11:52.019-07:00Faith and Politics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> We
have had a lot going on in these recent days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Politics are heating up with indictments of Paul Manafort and Michael
Cohen on charges relating to the election in 2016 and the possibility of
Russian interference in it. There has also been a grand jury report on the
sexual assaults by members of the Roman Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania and the
protection of some of the clergy by their bishops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These events hit most of us close to home
because we care about our country and we care about our faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things that demean either of them are hard to
listen to and very difficult to watch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
have no idea how all of this is going to turn out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The politics are hard to imagine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There will be many accusations and denials
coming along in the near future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
hard to know how the midterm elections will turn out, although it is probable
that all of this will make some kind of a difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is clear to me is that this is the world
that we are living in and it is necessary that we all take it seriously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love this country and I love my faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to be certain that this nation thrives
and also that our faith has an impact on how we all live our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is tempting to look at the President’s
current problems and to laugh because of all of the denials<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>, but that isn’t helpful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What we need is to get things back on the
right track and to continue to be a country that cares about the world that we
live in and offers as much help as possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus
has been all over Israel preaching and healing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He has attracted many disciples who have heard his words and have
followed him. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Gospel of John,
Jesus is tells all of them who he really is: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the bread which has come down from heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not like the bread that your ancestors ate,
and they died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But those who eat of this
bread will live forever.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Many
of those<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>who heard Jesus say this couldn’t
believe what he said and they went away, but the twelve whom he had chosen
stayed with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He asked them if they
also wanted to leave him, but Peter said: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lord,
to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to know
that you are the Holy one of God</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are beautiful words spoken by Peter on behalf of the rest of the
disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They tell the truth about
Jesus and what he did for us in this world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He brought himself to live among us; offered his body and blood for us
as signs of eternal life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we come to
the altar and receive the Eucharist, we are receiving that wonderful gift and
the promise of eternal life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
is the point that our faith makes in a world full of chaos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can spend our time worrying about the
ridiculous political mess that is going on around us, or put our trust in the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">God who loves us and who sent his only Son
to come to us and give himself up for us so that we can know what the promise
of eternal life means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is interesting
how faith began and shaped this country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Puritans and the Pilgrims came to our shores to create a place where
their faith cold be secure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many
ways, Puritanism has continued to be a part of our nation’s faith ever
since.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have had a number of famous
preachers emerge in our culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of
them have had a political strain to their preaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think of Jerry Falwell and Jim Bakker who
tried very hard to lead this country in a conservative direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Billy Graham was always seen as a faithful
pastor whose preaching was always an attempt to help people to see the truth of
the faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
recent times, we have Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama who have shared
their faith in a wonderful book called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Book of Joy</i>, which I eagerly read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It takes us out of the places where we spend most of our time, our own
worries and needs and places us in an environment where we can understand how God
intends for us all to live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
impressed that both of these dynamic men suffered their own trials:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bishop Tutu as a black man in South Africa,
oppressed by the white majority and the Dalai Lama in Tibet oppressed by the
Chinese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their testimony in this great
book lifts us all above he oppression of this world and places us in the hands
of a loving God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love the mixture of
religion in this book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is an
eminent Buddhist and a remarkable Christian pooling their common love and
sharing it with the world. This is what God has in mind for humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are loved deeply by our creator and we are
called to love one another with equal fervor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-85847605820329047832018-07-23T12:26:00.000-07:002018-07-23T12:26:50.883-07:00Buildings and Ministry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’ve been in some beautiful churches over the
years.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The one that sticks in my mind is
the elegant cathedral in Coventry, England.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Building a marvelous house of God has been a task that humanity has set
for itself from the beginning of religion.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">It has to do with loving God above all things, and it has produced some
great places.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">It has also produced some
great calamities. The Anglican cathedral in Coventry, was bombed by Germany in
1940 and destroyed.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Winston Churchill
and the dean of Coventry wandered through the wreckage of this place and found
a cross made of the fallen roof timbers.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">This still sits in what used to be the sanctuary of the destroyed church
as a reminder to all of us what the purpose of the church has always been.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk519928957">After the war, they rebuilt that cathedral. </a>What comes
to my mind when I think of the new Coventry Cathedral is the great hung tableau
of the risen Christ that hangs over the altar.
Our Lord looks over the heads of the gathered congregation, through
etched glass portraits of the saints in the rear window of the church that looks
over remnants of the destroyed cathedral still lingering after all of these
years. Coventry didn’t want to let the
old church go away. They have retained
it as a reminder of what it is that the world does to religion and they are
trying to do something positive about that.
The people of this place have created an organization called <i>The Community of the Cross of Nails</i>. Their purpose is to engage with other places
in the world where there has been great tragedy and to be part of a community
of survivors. They have reached out to
Germany, to Japan and many other places in the world where pain and misery have
gathered our attention. The results of
these offers of community has been to restore humanity in these places and to
make the purpose of religion to be seen by many people to be love and
understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> David wanted to build a great house
of God. He got the Ark of the Covenant
and was ready to build a place to store it.
He never got it done. The
building of the temple waited until his son Solomon came into power after
David’s death to build the first of the great Hebrew churches in
Jerusalem. This was done to honor all
that God had done for the people of Israel in giving them their common land and
their heritage. That great edifice
didn’t last. It became one of three
large temples devoted to God that the Hebrew people built. The last one in Jerusalem still has the
western wall remaining where countless people come to pray constantly. The temple mount has become the home of the
great Muslim Dome of the Rock, where Mohammed is supposed to have leapt into
heaven on the back of a horse. It is
also the place where many believe that Abraham offered Isaac to God as a
sacrifice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> What
stands out for me in all of this is that the cathedrals and temples that we
build are not scheduled to last forever.
The temple of God that lasts is the love that we pour into the world
because of our faith. When we help one
another, when we provide for one another in our mutual distress, we offer to
God a lasting temple of our love and understanding that far outweighs any kind
of a building that we can build. When
our parishes work to clean up the world’s pain, we are doing all that we can to
honor God’s love for humanity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span> </div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-36392396109995949992018-07-18T06:05:00.001-07:002018-07-18T06:10:18.651-07:00Love and the Law<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I
remember the first of the Indiana Jones movies, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Raiders of the Lost Ark</i>, when they discover the Ark of the Covenant
that had been owned by the Hebrew tribes since Moses got the Law on Mt. Sinai.
There are a lot of adventures and finally, Indiana and his companion are all
tied up at the end of the movie while some Nazi’s open the Ark <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and are destroyed by the fires that erupt from
within.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, Indiana takes the Ark
and transports it back to the United States where in the last moments of the
film, as the credits roll the Ark disappears into a massive government
warehouse probably never to be seen again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I loved that scene for a number of
reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First of all, how God’s law
superseded the Nazi militancy and dictatorship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Secondly, the way that the whole thing was stored away at the end so
that we still have it, but presumably don’t really know where it is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The truth of it all is that we
really do know where it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Ten
Commandments were given to Moses early in his prophetic life, have been with us
through all of the development of our religions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know on some level that they are true and
that we need them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many people have been
tempted to worship them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is the
story of the judge in Alabama who wanted to build a monument to the ten
commandments in his court and was prevented by other judges who told him that
this wasn’t quite right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Ten Commandments became a
foundation of the law that was added to and expanded in the Books of Leviticus
and Deuteronomy to include all manner of things that humans like to do; the law
is expanded throughout the Old Testament. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the great gifts that Jesus gave to
humanity was to tell us what it is that God wants from all of us. In the Sermon
on the Mount are the beatitudes that outline God’s grace for those who suffer: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">blessed are the meek; they shall inherit the
earth; </i>and<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> blessed are those who
mourn for they shall be comforted</i>. Then finally Jesus gives us his
commandments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first of these is to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love the Lord your God with all of your
heart, soul and mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the first
and greatest commandment</i>, Jesus says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And the second is like unto
it:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love your neighbor as a person like
yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On these two commandments hang
all of the law and the prophets.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That is incredibly good news for all
of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love is the critical issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t have to spend our time acting like
the supreme court analyzing the commandments to be sure that we obey all of
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All that we have to do is to love
our God and each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But that isn’t really easy, is
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look at this society of ours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get to the point sometimes that I don’t
want to watch the news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One thing after
another seems to cloud our contemporary lives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many shootings have we had this year? This
month? This week? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve also been
disgusted at the way that the kids at the border have been treated – taken away
from their parents and locked in cages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We can certainly do better than this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On the good side, what a wonderful show of love was given to those
soccer players stranded in the cave in Thailand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the seals who was trying to rescue
them died, but all twelve were rescued along with their coach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Love
has always been elusive to us because of our human greed and egos. There are
lots of stories about how we have failed to love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The story in Mark’s gospel about John the
Baptist telling King Herod that it isn’t lawful for him to marry his brother’s
wife does nothing but get him imprisoned and finally beheaded when Herod’s
daughter Salome danced and asked for John’s head on a platter. And it certainly
didn’t take humanity long to deal with the beauty that Jesus offered to all of
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He threatened the established
religion to the point that they had to get rid of him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As
soon as it was possible, he was arrested, turned over to Pilate and the Romans
and crucified on the cross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even
with all of this, God wasn’t finished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From
his place on the cross, Jesus forgave those who crucified him; he invited the
thief who was crucified with him to join him in eternal life and three days
after his crucifixion, Jesus was raised from the dead to remind us once again
that Love is the issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God’s
extravagant love of us all to not let Jesus’ death be the last word; and to continue
to love each of us in our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So
how do we continue to love in the face of all of the noise and corruption that
is around us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that there have been prayer meetings
about the kids on the border and that a number of churches have gathered food
for the hungry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the kind of good
work that love for one another dictates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> A number of churches are supporting the kids on the border by holding prayer meetings, raising money and doing other things to help. These things might seem to be small, but they make a difference. </span>Continue
to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and mind and love your
neighbor as a person like yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is our work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-12617373618425627112018-04-11T14:19:00.005-07:002018-04-11T14:19:54.029-07:00A Resurrection Reflection<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We
watched the television production of </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus
Christ Superstar</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the other night. This was an outstanding production with
all of the elements of the original stage play and motion picture in
place.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The story was familiar,
compelling and acted with great talent for all of us.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">As always, I was deeply moved by the way that
Jesus did his ministry, healing and comforting while the establishment looked
on with dismay.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The black-clad Pharisees
and Sadducees surrounded him in the early parts of the story and eventually
took him into custody and delivered him to Pilate who condemned him.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">John Legend played Jesus with great talent
and Alice Cooper was a harsh Herod.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">At
the end of the story, Jesus is hung on a cross and disappears through a cross-shaped
hole in the scenery and just disappears.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We all know what happened next.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The story of the resurrection is a
remarkable one. We have nothing else
like it in our memory or in our lives.
We know very well that death is at the end of all of our lives. We go through our own story knowing that we
at the end must leave all that we have on this earth. Our fate is certainly in the hands of our
loving God. Jesus’ resurrection is a
great sign to us that the God who made us will not let us go. We have resurrection to look forward to after
our deaths. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I have done a number of funerals in
my ministry. All of them are somber with
families in mourning and friends surrounding them. I always try to say something about the
person who has died and move on to the story of Jesus’ resurrection as our
eternal hope. It isn’t always easy. I remember one man who had been a mean
alcoholic who had left behind a family that more or less detested him. They all sat in a knot on one side of the
church during the funeral. I could see
the anger in their eyes. I wanted
somehow to reconcile them to the man who had died, but it was not something
that I was going to be able to do in the course of one religious service. I did what I could to assure them of God’s love
for him and for them and to assure them that what had happened was all over and
that they could get on with their lives even with their dark memories, and that
if they desired, all could be well.
Resurrection wasn’t what any of them were looking forward to at that
moment. They were happy that he was gone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> But that isn’t the case with most of
us. Resurrection is a happy thought in
the middle of death. It gives a hint of
what our God has in store for us for eternity:
joy in our maker’s presence forever.
I have also had a few moments when that was emphasized to me
eloquently. There was one woman who was
close to death in the hospital when I visited.
Her family was around her and as she took her last breath, she looked up
and said, <i>Oh, it is so beautiful!</i> I knew that she had seen something wonderful
in that moment. I believed that it was a
glimpse of heaven. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> If I had one small criticism of <i>Jesus Christ, Superstar</i>, it would have
been that there was no resurrection portrayed.
I would have loved it if they had included that wonderful moment from
John’s gospel when Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and finds it empty. She sees Jesus and thinks that he is the
gardener and asks him where they have put Jesus’ body. He turns and says to her: <i>Mary!</i> and all of a sudden with that word
of his, she knows that it this man is her risen Lord. That for me is probably
the most significant moment in all of scripture. Mary knows that the resurrection has happened,
and it is right in front of her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I think that the woman in the
hospital saw something like that. I hope
that is the vision that we all will see with our last breath. Spending eternity with those whom we love in
the presence of our God is a gift beyond anything that we could ever
desire. That is what resurrection means
for all of us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span> </div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-28906199326032293132018-03-11T14:15:00.003-07:002018-03-11T14:15:47.079-07:00Snakes and God<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My daughter was bitten by a snake
once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was white water rafting in
Fayette County, went ashore and climbed up some rocks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a large snake sleeping there and
she stepped on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was bitten on her
leg and immediately knew that it was trouble.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Her friends got her to Uniontown hospital where she was treated and
released.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She came home and told us what
had happened, and we took her to Passavant hospital’s emergency room where a
doctor began to care for her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She stayed
overnight; the doctor did a lot of research to find out what kind of a snake it
was and what she needed to do about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It turned out that the snake was a cottonmouth, an old snake, which
meant that the venom wasn’t as strong or as intense as a young snake’s venom would
have been. Our daughter got through all of this with some pain and some
difficult moments with her leg, but it all turned out all right. She is at this
moment living a happy life in San Diego with her fiancé.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I don’t think that snakes have been
a large part of my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We saw some
rattlesnakes when we were driving in Arizona, but they stayed away from
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Snakes pay a part in the lesson from
Numbers when the Hebrews become discontented with Moses and with God because
they are in the desert with no food and little water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of their anger, God sends poisonous
snakes among them and some are killed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
hate to criticize God, but <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought
that this was a bit of an <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>overreach, but
nonetheless, they complain to God about this and God tells Moses to create a
snake on a pole so that anyone who is bitten by a snake can look at the snake
on the pole and live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other use of a
snake in scripture is in the Garden of Eden when Eve wonders about the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil and the snake tells her that she can eat of it
without trouble.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After she eats of the
fruit of the tree, the snake tells her that she can also let Adam eat of the
tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This results in both of them
getting thrown out of the garden by God and from that moment on, humanity has
been cursed by not having peace, but always knowing the difference between good
and evil in the world, in others and in ourselves and making our own judgements
about what we think of the evil that we see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Then we have the story of Cain and
Abel, Adam and Eve’s two sons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were
vastly different, Cain a wanderer, a hunter and Abel a farmer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cain was very jealous of Abel because he seemed
to be accepted where Cain was not; so he killed him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When God asked Cain where Abel was, Cain
answered with that famous line: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Am I my
brother’s keeper?</i> Cain was also exiled and lived in the land of Nod.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We all have moments when our
selfishness leads us into sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes
we find ourselves in dark places needing very much to find healing and
hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why we all live in
community, where we can take care of each other in these dark times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my ministry, I have seen many people in
difficult situations where they needed help to get through them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without care from others, life could be
difficult and even dangerous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
known young people who were addicted to drugs and who needed to be given help
to get away from their addiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
only by conversation and caring that they were enabled to do that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The twelve-step process created by Alcoholics
Anonymous has led many people through hard times back to a semblance of
normality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that programs like
this are what are meant by the snake on a pole that people who are in trouble
can look at and find curing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Helping
each other is the essence of religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus told us to love one another as we are loved by God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is what we are asked to do in this world
to help each other with the hard times and to help us to know what joy is in
the middle of our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus alluded to this in John’s
gospel when he says that just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness,
so Jesus must be lifted up so that people can see him and find the way to
eternal life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a great use of the
Old Testament lesson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It tells us that
there is the way through evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Evil that
exists all around us and that can invade our lives easily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keeping our eye on our Lord Jesus, who died
for all of us that we might lose our sin and be admitted to everlasting life is
the essence of Lent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is why we are
here together in these pews each week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are here to love one another and to take that love with us into the
world where there are people being set upon by evil all over the place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we help them, we help our God to make
this earth a more heavenly place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is what was in God’s mind when he sent Jesus to teach us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-86124712617837831792018-03-04T13:16:00.000-08:002018-03-04T13:16:03.925-08:00God's Gifts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The first gift that God gave to
humanity were the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ten Commandments</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is amazing about that is the amount of
time that it took all of us to discard them and to make up our own rules.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Moses was coming down from the summit of
Mount Sinai with the tablets in his hand, the tribes of the Hebrews were
worshiping a golden calf created by Aaron out of the gold that the people of
the tribes had on their fingers, on their wrists or in some other place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here they were breaking the second
commandment before they had even read it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Keeping the commandments has never been an easy thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have stumbled and fallen constantly trying
to keep them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What is also fascinating is that the
religion that the Hebrew people devised for their people included Scribes and
Pharisees who interpreted the laws, making them stronger or easier, as time
went on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t long before many
people were being ostracized and left out of the culture because they couldn’t
keep the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This resulted in a multitude
of people who were poor and alone among them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The scripture is full of stories about the people whom Jesus encountered
who needed to be saved from others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think of the story of the Good Samaritan who stopped and took care of the poor
man at the side of the road after the priest and the Levite had passed him by;
or the woman in the territory of Tyre and Sidon who asked Jesus to heal her
daughter and Jesus at first told her no because she was out of his area and she
convinced him that her life and her daughter’s life were important to God by
telling Jesus that even the dogs licked up the crumbs that fell from the table
after Jesus told her that he could not give the children’s food to the
dogs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus was taught by her and led by
her into an important ministry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We have broken all of the
commandments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the one that says
simply, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you shall not commit murder</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do that when we racially disparage others
or keep them in bondage like slavery for our own use, or when we deprive others
of what they need to live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Murder is not
only killing others, it is causing death, which happens more often that we want
to admit. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God knows who we are and what
we do and we need always to know that we need to repent and find forgiveness
for the commandments that we have broken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">forgiveness</b> is the second
great gift that God has given to humankind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Each Sunday we confess our sins before God and the priest pronounces
absolution and forgiveness of our sins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At that moment, we are clean again and we can go forward with our lives
knowing that we have to that point kept the commandments and that we are
continually loved by God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I discovered a
lot about forgiveness when I did my prison ministry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In our group, we talked about forgiveness
frequently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Occasionally, one of the
members of the group understood forgiveness applied to them for what they had
done in their lives that got them into prison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Those were eloquent moments in the group and I was honored to see it
happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there is anyplace where
forgiveness is a gift to be not only accepted but revered, it is our
prisons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have one convict who is in
his sixties who has applied for commutation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I hope that it is granted because he would make a fine member of any
community that he was able to join.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
keep him in my prayers constantly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One of the prime reasons that God
sent Jesus to live among us is that God knew how hard it was to be human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God came to us in the form of Jesus of
Nazareth to live human life along with us and to see the difficulties that we
encounter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was born into poverty in a
stable instead of a room in an inn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
watched countless people in need with hope in their hearts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love the story of Jesus watching the woman
put her tiny mite into the temple’s collection and the way that he told his
disciples that she had given more than anyone else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She gave out of her poverty while others gave
of their wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What is finally true is that, like
the people whom Jesus came to heal, he was also rejected by the Scribes, the
Pharisees and really everyone else and given over to the Romans for trial and
for judgement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was crucified, died
and was buried in a donated grave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
third gift that our God gave to humankind was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jesus’ resurrection</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the
third day after his crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead and continued to live
among us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His disciples, who ran away
from the cross were amazed by this and set out to follow their Lord and to teach
his ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of them lost their lives
also, except John who died on the Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea after
writing the Book of Revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even
with their deaths, the church continued to this day, telling all of humanity
that we are loved and forgiven by the God who gave us the commandments and
finally God has promised us resurrection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are blessed indeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we
continue through Lent, let’s all remember these gifts and get ready to
celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord when at last Easter comes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-50477224513248171212018-02-25T12:53:00.001-08:002018-02-25T12:53:36.344-08:00Faith and Facts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> When
Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God came to him and promised him that he would
be the father of many nations and that he and Sarah would have a son. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Abraham was almost a hundred years old but yet
God made such a promise. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It happened soon
after. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sarah gave birth to Isaac and the
promise began to be fulfilled. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was
another moment when three men came to visit Abraham and he knew that they were God.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, they made their promise that Sarah
would give birth to a child and Sarah hid behind a door and laughed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wonderful thing is that Isaac means “laughter”.
This
birth became not only the beginning of Abraham’s family, but the cornerstone of
the many nations that God had promised. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is also true that Abraham is the cornerstone of not only the Hebrew religion, but
also Islam and Christianity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Faith is what
has caused this to happen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It certainly isn’t
facts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A hundred-year old man and his equally
aged wife began a family that has changed the world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus came to us to give us faith. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Mark’s gospel is the story of how he told his
disciples what was going to happen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told
them that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he would be rejected by the elders,
the chief priests and the scribes, be killed and then three days later rise again.</i>
Peter took him aside and rebuked him, saying that this must not happen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus said to Peter, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">get behind me Satan, you are setting your mind on human things, not divine
things. </i>And it all happened, just as Jesus told them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They made their way to Jerusalem and Jesus was
taken captive, tried before Pontius Pilate then crucified and died. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then three days later he rose from the dead. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he was crucified, the disciples all ran away;
Peter denied him and the rest simply hid. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three days later, they were all together in an
upper room with the door locked when Jesus suddenly appeared to them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They knew then that what their Lord had told them
was true and that they no longer needed to be afraid. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Faith is a beautiful thing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can change our lives, give us strength and help
us through the worst of times. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I left
the television industry and went to seminary, I had a wonderful wife and three kids.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rosie and I agreed to take this step. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rosie went to work outside the home to help to
provide for all of us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember in my senior
year, I applied for a grant to help with our finances. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They wanted a budget, so I worked out the numbers.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It amounted to about $20,000 which surprised
me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In looking back, it was apparent that
those funds had been provided for us by Rosie’s work and the few donations that
we had received, but I didn’t know it at all. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was faith that had gotten us through these years
and I was amazed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Faith is what can provide
for us even when we have no idea of how to get through our lives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Belief in God is critical to the living of full
lives that respond to the plan of God to make this world into a place more reflective
of heaven than earth. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that is what
Jesus meant by his words to Peter about thinking about human things instead of divine
things. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God stands ready to be with us, to
help us and make us whole. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here in the season
of Lent, we can look forward to the certainty of the resurrection, not as an item
of fact, but as the reality of faith. It is not what we have created, but it is
what God has promised. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-64978299824023213502018-01-08T11:16:00.004-08:002018-01-08T11:24:34.758-08:00The Tree of Good and Evil<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> How did we all get here? Well, we know that we were born. Most of us have birth certificates that spell
it all out for us. In this world, though
there are countless people who have no idea where or when they were born, who
their parents were, and any of the particulars.
They are simply here. Agencies
try to fill in some of the details; they are often counselled and given hope
that somehow they will discover their roots.
But for most of them, they will lack the hoped for news of their birth
and their parents and simply live their lives.
That isn’t easy. Understanding
our heritage gives us some clues about who we are and what we are doing
here. Without knowing any of this, we
are often left to just get on with our lives without any inkling of how we got
here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The lessons in the first week of
Epiphany try to offer some help for all of us to understand our parentage and
our beginnings, who we are and why we are here.
Genesis begins with the magnificent words: <i>In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form or void; and
darkness covered the face of the deep.</i>
Here, we are given the basics of how this world was formed. We are wedded to this world, which was
created by God to provide a place where his will could be worked out. After creating the world, God created
humankind in his own image. Adam and Eve
were placed in the Garden of Eden to be the earthly supervisors of God’s
kingdom. God’s plan was to have a place
where heaven was replicated with its goodness intact.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> To create all things, God placed the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden and told
both Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of this tree. Also in the garden was the serpent; the snake
that worked on Eve and told her that it would be perfectly all right for her to
eat that fruit and to offer it to Adam.
The result of this was that these two first beings immediately knew that
they were naked and that naked was bad and then did everything that they could
to hide themselves from God’s sight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The knowledge of good and evil has
been the basis for our legal system, our political system and all of the ways
that we interact with each other. I
think that even if God wishes that we didn’t know about it, we would not exist
without having a knowledge of good and evil.
I think that Jonathan Edwards great sermon in Northampton, Massachusetts
called <i>Sinners in the Hands of an Angry</i>
God sets the tone for God’s interaction with a world full of argument about who
is right and who is wrong. Edwards
thundered to his congregation about how we are being held over the burning
fires of hell by a thin, fragile strand held in God’s hand. That strand Edwards called Grace, that
wonderful characteristic of God that expresses the divine love for all of humankind. When the people in that congregation heard
that sermon, many of them got up and ran out of the church in terror. Edwards was one of the heralds of what we
call the <i>Great Awakening</i>, a largely
Puritan evangelical movement in the eighteenth century that re-established
protestant theology in this country that included other great preachers such as
George White, a largely Methodist theologian from Georgia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The notion of God’s grace spelling
out his incredible Love has helped many people come to an understanding of the
authority of God in this world. We are a
country founded on Puritan values from the time of their landing in
Massachusetts and William Bradford’s governance. These Puritans has escaped religious
persecution in England only to re-establish it in their new homeland. Roger Williams was chased out of the
Massachusetts Bay colony to establish his own theological area in Rhode
Island. We are continually eating of the
fruit of the tree of good and evil. What
is important in this world is that God’s love continues to keep us safe and
bring us back into the reality of goodness.
May God continue to bless us in this Epiphany season.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-55014898886716506222018-01-01T07:39:00.004-08:002018-01-01T07:39:55.447-08:00The Peace of Jerusalem<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">When
we made a trip to the Holy Land in 1983, it was fascinating to see what Israel
had done to the Palestinians who were in the West Bank, which included part of
Jerusalem.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Palestinians and Jews had
different license plates.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It was easy to
tell one from another.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">There were
numerous check points where Israeli cars were waved through and the Palestinians
were all stopped.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Israeli troops were
everywhere.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">In those days, in the
eighties, there was not much open fighting, not much outward turmoil; but in
the hearts of the Palestinian people, there was a great feeling of being
ostracized and left out.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Of course, the Israelis claimed all
of the West Bank as their own and were just beginning to open “settlements” in
that area, which have surged in the years since until at the present time they
occupy a great deal of the territory. In
Jerusalem itself, Israelis are occupying much of East Jerusalem, where
Palestinians have long been the chief residents. Jerusalem is not a peaceful place at all, nor
has it ever been.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i>Pray
for the peace of Jerusalem</i> has long been a standard prayer in most
churches. It signifies the longing that
the world has to see peace and harmony in that place. We have been aware of the turmoil in the Middle
East for a long time. The movie <i>Exodus</i> with Paul Newman was an excellent
story of the beginning of the struggle.
Finding a common solution to the division that exists in what we call
the Holy Land seems to be farther and farther from what is possible. There have been a number of attempts to bridge
the gap, but they have all ultimately failed.
We need to keep Jerusalem and all of the Middle East in our prayers that
somehow God will intervene to help us to calm the chaos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which
is now in the West Bank; lived his early life in Nazareth in Galilee and spent
his ministry helping the people in all of Israel to find healing, comfort and
peace in their lives. When finally, he
entered the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday it was on the back of a donkey
while the Roman military entered the city with horses and troops. Jesus came to Jerusalem to live the last days
of his life that ended with his betrayal and crucifixion and finally his
resurrection and eventually his ascension.
Christianity was born in Jerusalem.
His followers began small churches that spread the word of the risen
Christ throughout the known world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Today, Jerusalem is divided into
three divisions: Christian, Jewish and
Muslim. All of these religions are
present and in places of worship. The
Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a Christian church where Roman Catholic, Greek
Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox worship. This Church is the place where the
story of the last days of Jesus’ life are told, with his sepulcher in the
middle of the church. The Western Wall
is the remains of the last Jewish temple where faithful Jews gather every day
to pray, and the old Temple Mount is the home to Al Aksa mosque and the highly
visible Dome of the Rock where supposedly Abraham offered Isaac to God and also
where Mohammed on his horse leapt into heaven.
This is a powerful city to visit and I can see little hope that one
religion will finally occupy it alone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> It also seems to me that Jerusalem
is a powerful symbol of what God has in mind for all of humanity. Living together with different religions and
different views of the world is God’s plan for all of us. If we can learn to put our differences aside
and respect one another, we will eventually find the peace that passes
understanding. That isn’t easy. Money and politics sometimes dictate our
beliefs. None of us die rich. Eventually, we all stand before God as who we
are and who we have become. Who has the
most money or the most powerful political standing doesn’t mean a thing in God’s
sight. It is only how much we have loved
and cared for those around us that matter as we stand before our God. May God bless us in this new year as we try
to look past our differences to a world of peace and harmony.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-28799791282895809332017-12-24T13:50:00.001-08:002017-12-24T13:50:37.527-08:00Mary, the Mother of God, <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> For far too long, women have been
excluded from all or part of public life.
It wasn’t until 1920 that they were allowed to vote. Hillary Clinton was the first woman nominated
to run for the Presidency and that wasn’t until 2016. It has been a long time for these people to
wait to have access to the power that runs this country. Yes, we have some representatives and
senators from the female gender and even a few governors; but largely, it is
men who run the country, make the laws and determine our course in the international
world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Even in the world of religion there
have been some profound changes. The
woman deacon who read the gospel at my ordination to the priesthood told me
that it was the last time that she would do that. I believe that it probably was because she
was ordained to the priesthood in 1976, the first year that women were allowed
to be priests in the Episcopal church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I have a sense that much is
changing. The #metoo movement has
sparked commentary and argument across the spectrum of politics and it is
obvious that women are not going to simply retire into the background and be
quiet. It is necessary to have
conversation about the things that are troubling this country and all that
crosses the lines of gender. Things are
never going to be the same as they always have been. That is a positive outcome of all of this
turmoil. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Mary, the mother of Jesus was a
remarkable woman. She endured the pain
and the ostracism that carrying Jesus to term entailed. She had Joseph as a companion on this
journey, but it was a difficult trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where her baby
was born in a stable because as the story is told, there was no room for them
in the inn. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> When the angel Gabriel came to Mary
and told her that she had been chosen by God to be the mother of the Lord, she
didn’t argue with him. Instead, she
replied with the <i>Magnificat</i>, a
glorious song that proclaimed the greatness of God and spoke of the favor that
she knew had been given to her. Her song
offers the mission of Jesus even before his birth. In this beautiful song, she says about
God: <i>He
has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has
scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their
thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He
has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Mary’s greatness is also told to us
in the second stanza of the Rosary, when it is said: <i>Holy Mary, <u>mother of God</u>, pray for us sinners now and at the
hour of our death. </i>Mother of God
indeed. Certainly that is true because
we know that Jesus was God incarnate on this earth. It is because of Jesus that we know that God
understands what it means to be human and to know all of the limitations and
difficulty that human being entails. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Thank God for Mary. Thank God for all of our mothers and the
women who have helped to create a world where goodness happens every day. I hope that out of all of this trouble and
difficulty that is being experienced in the present time, that their strength
will be allowed to serve this world in more leadership roles and to help us to
be the people that God intended us to be from the moment of creation. May God bless you and may you have a very merry Christmas!</span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span> </div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-90698124905389125772017-12-19T12:07:00.003-08:002017-12-19T12:07:51.970-08:00Ministry in a Changing World<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Time
marches on.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I have noticed that all of
the World War II veterans are now in their nineties.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">That should not be surprising, but I remember
that war.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I heard the notice of the
attack on Pearl Harbor on our radio in our living room when I was eight years
old.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I have grown up with those
memories.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We have moved into another era
as things have changed in this country.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">That isn’t a bad thing, it is just different.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We need to constantly look at what our work
must be in a changing time.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Jesus came into our world as a newborn
in Bethlehem and lived for thirty some years.
His ministry from the time that he was baptized by John in the Jordan
until his crucifixion lasted about three years.
In that time, he offered healing, comfort and care to the people whom he
met throughout Israel and even into some of the surrounding territories. After his death and subsequent resurrection
and his ascension into heaven, his apostles created small house churches that
met constantly to celebrate their common ministry that they inherited from
their Lord and to create communities that acted in concert to keep these ministries
working. Those house churches became the
model for later Christians as they worked to carry on the ministry that Jesus
taught to all of us by his life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The prophet Isaiah spoke of God’s
purpose for humankind in the 61<sup>st</sup> chapter of his prophecy when he
said: <i>He has sent me to bring good news to
the oppressed; to bind up the broken-hearted; to proclaim liberty to the
captives and release to the prisoners; to comfort all who mourn. </i>That is
the ministry that Jesus took for his own during his life and has passed on to what
has become the Christian church afterwards.
Christianity is composed of a number of denominations, each with their
own view of what their worship and ministry means. We ought not to confuse ministry with our
prayer books. We can cooperate in our ministry
while we worship in our own singular ways.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> What we share with those original
disciples of Jesus is our common community that we call our churches. They are the means by which ministry can be
moved into our neighborhoods. There are
many homeless, people in poverty and those who have lost friends or members of
their families to death, or are suffering in many other ways around us. Our job is to make their worlds brighter by
our presence and our caring. When we do
this, we are doing God’s will as expressed by Isaiah in his insightful
prophecy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> We are living in a turbulent world
with changing politics all around us. In
this unsettled time, our ministry is more and more important. When we can lift up those who are hurting and
give hope to those who are fearful, we are making a profound difference in this
world. That is why ministry is so
important. God will bless us richly as
we do this work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-11841601562761228592017-12-11T14:07:00.001-08:002017-12-12T12:26:18.062-08:00Avoiding Retirement<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">I’ve retired four times.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">That may sound silly or ridiculous, but it is
certainly true.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">In 1972, I retired from
the television station that I had been working for because they ran out of
money and they couldn’t pay me anymore.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">I then went to seminary, became an Episcopal priest and started another
career entirely.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">I was the rector of two
churches in Pittsburgh and loved every minute of it.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">When I reached the age of 65 in 1999, I
retired from my parish and went to live at a little resort community in West
Virginia with my beautiful wife.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">After
two years of playing golf and reading, I got bored, called the West Virginia
bishop and asked him if he had any work.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">He told me that there were some parishes that were in need of an interim
rector, but they were all in the southern part of the state.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">I was eager to get back to work, so I agreed
to consider these places.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Over the next
several years, I served three parishes near Charleston as their interim rector,
having a good time at each one and paving the way for each of them to do
something with their future.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">After recovering from a menengioma while I
continued to work, in 2010, our kids called and said that it was a four-hour
trip to Charleston and they wondered when we were going to think about coming
home. We heard that plea from them, I
again retired from the parish that I was working at, we sold our Charleston
house and moved back to Pittsburgh. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I still wasn’t done. The bishop of Pittsburgh told me that there
was a parish in need of someone to be a permanent supply priest for them. I agreed to do this and spent the next year
and a half serving that parish each Sunday and getting to know a parish full of
excellent people. The time came when I
finally decided that retirement from this work was the thing for me to do, so
for the fourth time, I retired. I am
probably still not done. There is a
shortage of clergy in this diocese and I am sure that there will be times that
I will be asked to take a Sunday or two somewhere. I will be happy to do that, and I will
continue to write my blog every week. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Retirement is something that many people
look forward to; they sometimes go to Florida or someplace else with a warm
climate and they relax, do some of the things that they never had time for
while they were working. Pensions and
Social Security help them pay the bills.
I tried this when we went to the West Virginia resort community. We enjoyed it, but it still left a hole in my
life, a hole that I needed to fill with the work that I had been doing. Retiring is also something that has emerged in
this generation as a stage of life that we can aspire to. I think that if that is so, we need to
discover some things that we can do that benefit those around us in our time to
ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When I look at the biblical people who speak
to us in the lessons that we hear each week in church, retirement doesn’t seem
to be a condition that many of them take up.
I think of Isaiah, who offered his prophecy to the people of Israel as a
statement of life. His intention was to warn and to comfort his people as they
lived lives that sometimes included a lot of misery. I have always loved the
words that begin the second part of the book of the prophet Isaiah, the words
that also make up one of the most moving arias in the <i>Messiah</i>. Isaiah is getting
us ready for the coming of God into the world.
He speaks to the people of Israel to give them comfort and hope</span>:<span class="initcap"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<span class="initcap"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span><i>C</i></span><i>omfort, O comfort
my people,<br />
says
your God.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<i> Speak
tenderly to Jerusalem,<br />
and
cry to her<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<i> that
she has served her term,<br />
that
her penalty is paid,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<i> that
she has received from the <span class="lordsmallcaps"><span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span></span>'s
hand double for all her sins.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
What beautiful words the prophet has for
all of the people who are listening to him.<br />
<span style="text-indent: -24pt;"> These words come from a deep faith and a commitment to the work that Isaiah
has been given</span></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
to do. His work offered
promise and the blessing of God to all of the people and are the </div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
foundation of
our season of Advent where we wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus into the </div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
I’m
glad that I am still working and managing to avoid complete retirement. I know that </div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
theLord <span style="text-indent: -24pt;">still has work for </span><span style="text-indent: -24pt;">me to
do in this world and I am eager to do it.</span><span style="text-indent: -24pt;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -24pt;">I thank God for all of </span></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: -24pt;">the </span><span style="text-indent: -24pt;">things that I have been able to do and the</span><span style="text-indent: -24pt;">people
whom I have worked with.</span><span style="text-indent: -24pt;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -24pt;">This has been</span></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: -24pt;"> a </span><span style="text-indent: -24pt;">blessing to me beyond any expectation.</span><span style="text-indent: -24pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="text-indent: -24pt;"> </span> </div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-40438178783844708732017-12-04T12:32:00.000-08:002017-12-04T12:32:04.101-08:00Listening and Learning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I’ve always wondered about the
argument about Merry Christmas versus Happy Holidays as a greeting at this time
of the year. I know that Christians want
to celebrate the birth of Jesus in this season, but it seems to me that Happy
Holidays is really an inclusive term to offer good wishes to people who don’t
necessarily celebrate Christmas. It
certainly isn’t an attempt to create a “war on Christmas” as some political
people try to say. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> If there was a war on Christians it
was certainly waged during the days of the Inquisition, when proper belief was
demanded and those who deviated were severely punished. It was also waged when the Puritans came to
America to avoid persecution in England and then began persecuting everyone
when they got to this continent. I’m not
surprised by some of these “wars”, they come from the idea that somebody’s
ideas are the only correct ones and that those who deviate from them just have
to be wrong. This has been the basis for
discrimination since the world was founded.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The cure for this, it seems to me,
is that we need to listen more and talk less.
When we listen, we learn. That is
increasingly important in a time when certainty seems to be in vogue and those
who don’t agree with the prevailing ideas are told that they are wrong. Certainty is very common in our politically
charged world. It has been made more so
since our political parties have drawn away from each other in an attempt to
gather power. The keeping of gathered
power seems to account for more and more outrageous claims of whatever they
project “truth” to be. There is less and
less listening going on in the halls of power these days and an excess of
talking. Finding solutions requires
people listening to each other to find compromises that really help people in
their lives. The final stage of not
listening is an autocracy that simply dictates what will happen and fails to
take into account the negative effects that their proposed actions will
create. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
In
the Old Testament, Isaiah is talking about a time of crisis, when the people
have gone on their own way and have become lost in this world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
Isaiah
says:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<i>We have all become like one who is unclean,<br />
and
all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<i> We
all fade like a leaf,<br />
and
our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<i> There
is no one who calls on your name,<br />
or
attempts to take hold of you;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -24.0pt;">
<i> For you have hidden your face from us,<br />
and
have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The prophet calls upon God to come down, to
make the mountains quake and to make the world new again so that the people who
have strayed can again be happy. This is
a great cry here at the beginning of the Advent season as we wait for the coming
of Jesus again with our own hopes that our Lord will help us to make the world
right again after all of our certainty has faded and our sins that have erupted
because of it have overwhelmed us.
Isaiah’s cry to God can mirror our own yearning for justice and hope in
this world where so much seems to have gone astray. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> That, for me, is the power of this
wonderful season leading up to Christmas.
Our desire is for God’s hope for humankind to be restored and for us all
to live together in the harmony that our Lord wants for us all. As we once again wait for the birth of our
Lord Jesus at the great moment of Christmas, let us try to listen better to
each other and to learn rather than dictate our certainty in this world. God bless us as we work together on helping
our God to renew our culture and our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-53300679891820576952017-11-27T12:55:00.001-08:002017-11-27T12:55:15.215-08:00Finding Our True Religion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> We live in a time of great
turmoil. There are arguments going on
all around us. These are not only
political arguments that separate us, even our religious organizations are
having trouble staying together. This is
a time when churches are losing members, small churches are foundering and some
of them are closing. There is an obvious
struggle in many churches to stay viable.
I’ve been almost astounded to watch the Roman Catholic church merging
parishes and closing others. This has
created agony among many people of faith who have looked to their churches as
places of community where they knew their neighbors and found their
friends. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> It is necessary that we get all of
this sorted out. To help people of faith
gather together in places where they can feel secure and practice their faith
with some certainty that the institution in which they worship and know their
neighbors will continue to flourish and be able to support them in their work
and the ministry that they are anxious to continue to work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> After Jesus’ resurrection, the
apostles founded small churches in their homes.
These congregations were composed of 40-50 people all of whom wanted to
celebrate the new life that had been given to them by their Lord. These were joyful communities who did a lot
of good in the world around them. Care
for the poor and the outcast was primary in the life of these newly created
Christians. This was probably the
primary command of Jesus during his ministry: to love one another as we have
been loved by our God and to take care of the need that we find around us with
all of our resources. I can’t imagine a
better cure for the turmoil that I see in our society than this: to keep our
eyes open for those in need and to do what we can to make them
comfortable. This is the mission that
our God has set before us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Look at Jesus ministry. He constantly went out of his way to cure, to
lift up and to help those who were in terrible need. He even learned to go outside the bounds of
belief to do this. I think of the woman
that he met on the road to Tyre and Sidon who had a sick daughter who asked him
for a cure. He told her that it wasn’t
right to give the food on the table to the dogs. She answered him by saying that the dogs eat
the crumbs that fall to the ground.
Jesus immediately knew what he had to do and told her that her belief
was remarkable and that her daughter was immediately healed. Jesus was here for all of us. His love and concern for our welfare extended
to the whole world. We are the
inheritors of this mission. What is
necessary for all of us is to look around us to find those who are in need and
to care for them. When we do that, we
follow our Lord’s instructions and create the kind of world that God intended
from the beginning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> It isn’t easy to do this. We have to keep our faith and our religious
life intact and to continue to follow our Lord’s teaching, wherever it
leads. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells
his followers that they enter into his Kingdom when they fed him when he was
hungry, gave him water when he was thirsty, welcomed him when he was a
stranger, gave him clothing when he was naked and visited him when he was in
prison. They asked him when they had
done any of these things and he told them the wonderful truth: <i>When you did this for the least of those who
are members of my family, you did it for me</i>. As we know, the members of his family are all
of the people on this earth. When we
care for each other, we care for our Lord.
I can’t imagine a more perfect religion.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span> </div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-20923313647925085182017-11-20T14:25:00.005-08:002017-11-20T14:25:52.045-08:00Living With Compassion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I’ve never been particularly fond of
the parable of the servants who were each given a sum of money by their
master. Two of them invested the money
and doubled it and received the praise of their master when he returned. The third one was afraid and buried his money
and then gave it back to the master when he came back. The master rewarded the ones who doubled
their money and punished the servant who only returned what he had been
given. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The reason that I don’t like this
story is because it seems to me to be devoid of compassion, which I think is
the quality that Jesus brought to all of us by his life and ministry. I would rather have had the master take the
frightened servant aside and thank him for giving back his money and sharing
with him some possible ways that he could have used the small amount that he
had been given to make a difference in the world. That would have been preferable to seeing the
poor man get punished. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Compassion isn’t always easy. Sometimes we are frightened by misery. When we see large groups of people who don’t
have enough to eat or places to live, we sometimes are tempted to retreat from
it and wonder if somebody else can do something to help them. Our role in taking care of each other is the
essence of compassion. Once when we were
on our meals-on-wheels route, a woman came to us and asked if we could give her
a dollar. She wanted to buy a hot
chocolate and didn’t have the money to do that.
I gave her five dollars and watched the tears well up in her eyes. She said that her house had burned down and
that she was trying to find a place to live.
She left us and went to get her hot chocolate. I certainly didn’t do much to help her, but
those tears of hers after getting a small amount of money stayed with me. She certainly needed more help than I could
give her at that moment, and she was only one of a number of people on the
street who are left behind by the rest of us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Finding
ways that we can reach out to those in need is the essence of our
religion. God created us, loves us and
asks us to love one another. That isn’t
something that is just said, it is what our creator wants of us all. There is more than enough wealth in this
world to take care of all of us. The
fact that it accumulates with those who are wealthy isn’t new. It has been going on since the world was
created. Jesus came to teach us how to
care for each other and to spread the wealth around so that we can all be cared
for. One of the best pieces of art that
I think that I have ever seen is a sketch of Jesus sitting at the base of a
lamppost with his arms around two obviously homeless people who are leaning on
him. That sketch says it all. Jesus caring for those in need and asking us
to join him in that effort. Compassion
is a great gift that we have been given by our Lord. Let us not forget to use it.</span></div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-27323370751412708002017-11-13T13:10:00.003-08:002017-11-13T13:10:53.769-08:00Helping Others<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We
have heard Moses give us the Ten Commandments, Jesus offered the beatitudes and
in Matthew’s gospel, he tells us about the bridesmaids who were waiting for the
bridegroom.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">They all had lamps, some of
them had oil for the lamps and some didn’t.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">When the bridegroom arrived suddenly, those with oil were able to light
their lamps and accompany him.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
others were out of luck and couldn’t do much of anything at all.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Jesus uses this parable to tell us
that we need to be ready—not necessarily for the coming of the Kingdom of
Heaven, or for Jesus’ second coming, but simply ready in our lives for what is
going on around us. I think of this when
I am at the store, or walking around downtown, or simply driving on the roads
around town. We never know what we are likely to encounter when we are living
our lives. Sometimes it is a beggar on
the street; sometimes it is somebody in serious trouble who needs our
help. What this parable is telling us is
to be ready to do whatever it is that is needed to help people in their lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Our local paper had a column every
week called <i>Random Acts of Kindness</i>,
where people tell stories about how strangers helped them out of some kind of
trouble. They always do this to show
their appreciation for what random strangers have done to help them. Often, they don’t know the names of the
people who have helped, they just are pleased that somebody cared at a moment
in time when they needed help. I suspect
that a lot of the help that is provided to people on a day to day basis goes largely
unreported and just anonymously helps whoever needs it. I think that is what God has in mind for all of
us as we live our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Families are one place where help is
often provided. We are more familiar with
each other’s needs in our families. For people
whom we don’t know at all, we need to be able to see the sometimes subtle signs
that help is needed. When we are able to
do that, the Kingdom of Heaven comes a little nearer. I think that is what Jesus is trying to teach us
not only with his parables, but with his life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-5652970724317140552017-11-06T13:31:00.005-08:002017-11-06T13:31:54.874-08:00Let Mercy Rule<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">There
have been so many tragedies recently.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">All of the storms that plagued the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Florida
and Texas not to mention Ireland and the British Isles; the earthquake in
Mexico and the terrible fires in California that have left so many people
without homes and possessions.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We had the
horrible shooting in Las Vegas that killed so many people who were simply
attending a country music performance; the terrorist driving a truck into the
bike lane in New York, killing eight people and injuring a number of others,
and the shooting at the church at Sutherland Springs, Texas that killed 26
people. The grieving over all of this has taken us over as a nation and has
caused such pain in so many lives. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is
as if we have embarked on a new era, an era of hatred and misery enhanced by
egotism and people who just don’t care about law and order and want to create
chaos wherever they are.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is also
applicable to the natural disasters that we are seeing since we don’t seem to
care about climate change and continue to permit inordinate pollution of our
atmosphere.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> In
Matthew’s gospel, Jesus begins his sermon on the mount by telling his apostles
the beatitudes. These are great phrases
that really sum up the expectations that God has for all of us. One of them
reads: <i>blessed are the merciful, for they
will receive mercy</i>. Mercy isn’t an
easy thing to either give or receive.
Often when we pass a beggar on the street, we do just that: pass them.
We ignore their signs, their position on the street, frequently sitting
down against a post, dressed in shabby clothes and all of the things that tell
us of their difficult position in life. We
don’t really think of mercy in these moments, we think only of getting on with
what we are doing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Mercy is a two-way street. I love the verse that goes: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i>Christmas is coming, the geese are getting
fat<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Please
to put a penny in the old man’s hat.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> If
you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will do<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> If
you haven’t got a ha’penny, God bless you!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Here
is mercy coming back from the beggar. We
really don’t think of that most of the time either, we are still set on doing
what we are about. But this is the
reality of mercy. It is the interaction
that we have with each other, caring for each other, paying attention to our
needs, and being aware of the condition that each of us are in. It is fairly easy to do this with our friends
and our relatives, but when it comes to strangers, it is a bit more
difficult. I know that our Lord wants us
to care for each other, to be merciful and loving to each other. When we do this we lessen the amount of
stress and hatred in this world and make it less likely that events such as we
are seeing in the news will keep happening.
Love one another as I have loved you, said Jesus to all of us when he
expressed the commandments of God. That
is our mission as the children of God.
God loves every one of us. Let us
try as hard as we can to love one another.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-85835466969365438012017-10-30T13:19:00.001-07:002017-10-30T13:19:41.581-07:00Love Triumphs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> There is a great verse in the hymn <i>Amazing Grace</i> that says:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> When we’ve been there
ten thousand years/bright shining as the sun;<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> We’ve
no less days to sing God’s praise/than when we’d first begun</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> That
to me is an excellent way to describe the relationship that we have with our
God and this world. We all grow up, grow
older and live out our lives doing what we can with our faith. Sometimes we don’t do very well with our
loving. We neglect people who are in
need and marginalize others. There is a
constant argument going on in our society about how those who are in categories
that we have created ought to live. If
you are African American, gay, female, Muslim, Latino or Native American you
will certainly encounter barriers that might prevent you from living your life
in full. Periodically, we come up with
ways to bridge these barriers, but the rhetoric that emerges from the argument
is always hurtful and demonstrates how hard it is for us to love one another as
our God has loved us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> That commandment <u>to love</u>, is
the foundation of all scripture. When
Jesus was asked what is the most important commandment, this is the one that he
offers to the Pharisees who have asked him the question. He offers it in good faith because it is true
and is the basis for all of the rest of Holy Scripture. If we can’t love one another, not much else
is really possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> What gets in the way is our
narcissism, our ego centered attitude toward others that comes from our desire
to get our own way in most things. When
we can put this aside and care for others and their needs, love has an honest
chance to work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> We live in a time when hate has
erupted in almost incredible ways. A man
shoots a large number of people in a crowd watching a country music festival in
Las Vegas and we can’t find any reason why he would do this. The social media platform called <i>Twitter</i> is increasing being used to call
people names and pump out false information to the country. The label <i>fake
news</i> is used over and over again to deflect claims of real truth in some of
the reporting that is going on in this country.
It is harder and harder to know what is true and what is false in what
we are reading and hearing every day in our media reporting and the political
response that we receive to it. There is
a design to this. The deflection of reporting on real
events by those in charge is a way to make us all pay attention to other things
rather than what is being said.
Deflection is a great strategy to keep us from looking deeper into the
events that are being reported.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> The
only answer to hate is love. That is why
Jesus made it the most important commandment; and the one that brings us all
closer to God. Without love, hate
triumphs and this world loses a great deal of meaning and hope. We have a mission to spread love in this
world and to defeat the forces of hate.</span></div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-60191752284154060652017-10-23T11:48:00.001-07:002017-10-23T11:48:10.092-07:00The Face of God<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’ve
always been leery of preachers who want to show me the face of God.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The ones who know so very well what God looks
like.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">When you look a little closer,
their god looks a lot like what they want you to believe.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I think of people like the ones from the
Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas who love to picket veteran’s funerals with
signs that say hateful things.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Their god
is not one of love, but of hate and condemnation.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> They, of course aren’t new at
this. During the inquisition, many
people were executed for beliefs that were contrary to what the church at the
time professed. In recent times, many
African-Americans were lynched in this country simply for being black and free,
contrary to the ethos of slavery that existed in many people’s minds. When I consider these things, it makes me
wonder why it is that people want to attribute to our God these things that
they believe that are so contrary to what God taught to all of us through
Jesus’ ministry and through the works of the church through the centuries when
it wasn’t trying to contradict the Word of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Up on Mount Sinai, God gave to Moses
the Ten Commandments, God’s word spelled out so that people could understand
it. These were the ways that God wanted
humanity to behave. They are simple
rules that we all understand and really don’t want to argue with. Yes, it is hard to keep them. We all covet,
bear false witness, fail to honor our father and mother and to have no other
gods before the God who loves us all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I spent a number of years with
prisoners in the penitentiary who all had committed murder and were paying for
that with life sentences. They had broken
one of the most significant of the commandments. We spent a lot of time talking about that and
trying to find ways that they could find forgiveness. I always thought, while I was doing that, how
much we all need to find forgiveness for the commandments that we have
broken. I notice that God doesn’t
ascribe any particular importance to any of these commandments. They are all important to be followed if we
are going to do the will of our God.
When we break them, as we all have, we need to find forgiveness and get
ourselves back to the place where God’s Love surrounds us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> After Moses received the
commandments, Moses asked God to show him more so that he could describe the
person who gave him the commandments.
God told him that he would show to Moses his Glory, but God’s face he
could not see. Moses was tucked into a
crevice in the mountain while God passed by.
Moses could see God’s back, but not God’s face because as God said, “to
see my face is to die.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I know that God was trying to help
Moses to understand the depth of God’s glory and the strength and power behind
the issuance of the commandments. It was
simply moments later that God told Moses that his people down at the base of
Sinai had constructed a golden calf that they were worshipping, and that Moses
needed to put a stop to that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> It is certainly fascinating the way
that we lift up our own prejudices in our worship life. Like the Westboro people, we want the whole
world to come to our way of thinking. In
Matthew’s gospel, the Pharisees seek to trap Jesus, so they ask him a subtle
question: <i>Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?</i> Jesus recognizes the trap and asks them for
the coin which they use to pay the taxes.
They show him a denarius, which has the face of the emperor on it. <i>Whose
face is this</i>? asks Jesus. When they reply, <i>the emperor’s, </i>Jesus says to them, <i>then give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor and to God the
things that are God’s.</i> This quieted the Pharisees and they left Jesus. An amazing exchange. We need always to remember that all that we
have and are belongs to God and to create another authority and declare that it
is superior is always wrong. We live in a time when hatred is showing up all
over the place. God is Love and Love is
how we defeat hatred. When we remember
that, our God is blessedly served.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-73232595633510615712017-10-15T12:40:00.000-07:002017-10-15T12:40:03.926-07:00What Does Love Mean?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">In
the movie, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Ten Commandments</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">,
Aaron, played by Edward G. Robinson, urges the Hebrew people at the foot of
Mount Sinai to build a golden calf while they are waiting for Moses, played by Charleton
Heston to come down from the top of the mountain, where he had gone at the
command of God.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">God sees all of this and
tells Moses that his people are doing a bad thing and that he needs to go down
and to stop them.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Moses does this and
the people are indeed stunned at their leader’s anger.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> That story has always puzzled me a
bit. Those Hebrews have been freed from
their slavery in Egypt and have been in the desert for a while coming to terms
with it. They are a bit confused as to
what circumstances they are in and what is coming next. Other than a “promised land” that seems to
them to be a bit vague, they have no sense of what the future holds. With Moses away for a while, his brother
Aaron takes charge and offers a rationale for their condition. He asks for all of the gold that these people
have as earrings, rings and such, and fashions a molded golden calf from it and
tells the people that this calf is the god who has brought them out of Egypt
and invites them to worship this newly created symbol. God is of course furious and sends Moses to
break it all up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I’m not surprised at all at the
Hebrew’s confusion. How are they to know
what God has in mind for them. Moses is
at that moment receiving the rules of behavior for his flock, rules that they
don’t even know about yet. Aaron is
simply giving them an answer for their confusion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I am equally puzzled by Jesus’
parable of the king who was having a wedding banquet to which nobody was
coming. There was no understanding here,
either by the king or by the subjects.
The people who were invited killed the slaves who invited them and the
king sent his troops to kill them.
Eventually, the king sent his slaves to invite anyone whom they saw in
the streets and soon the banquet hall was filled with guests. The king comes in, sees one man who has no
wedding robe, asks him how he got in without being properly dressed, orders him
to be bound hands and feet and thrown into outer darkness. He ends the story with the curious words, <i>many are called but few are chosen. </i> Why is Jesus telling this parable? What is he trying to get us to understand?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> In both of these stories, God is
expecting some kind of understood behavior from those who worship their
creator. In talk after talk during his lifetime
and his ministry, Jesus tells us that
the most important thing that we can do is to love one another. <i>The
primary commandment is to Love the Lord our God with all of your hearts, mind
and souls and to love our neighbor as a person like yourselves.</i> Jesus went on to say that on this primary
commandment hangs all of the law and the prophets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I think what is going on in these
stories is that God is assuming that love will be the foundation on which these
people build their lives. The creation
of the golden calf is contrary to that and denies the existence of the God who
created the world and all of the people who have been freed. In the parable that Jesus tells, the king,
who is God has invited all of the people to come to the wedding banquet and is
astonished that one man has no wedding clothes.
The wedding clothes stand for the essence of love. That is why the man is thrown out of the
banquet. It isn’t easy to understand,
which is why at first these stories confuse me.
Knowing that the God whom we all worship is the God of Love helps me to
comprehend what is being said. If only
we all could love one another, this world would be a place of peace and
comfort, just like the Kingdom of Heaven.
That is what our creator, and his Son, our Lord have in mind for us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> What makes all of this come together
for me is that shortly after all of this was said comes the confrontation with
the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes and Jesus’ arrest, condemnation and
crucifixion. God’s ultimate answer to
this horrible treatment of Jesus is to create the Resurrection three days later
and give us all the gift of eternal life as a result. What more can we ask of the God who loves us
so completely? Our response is simple;
we need to embrace Love as our guiding star and focus on taking care of each
other. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-68885657898625244372017-10-09T06:33:00.003-07:002017-10-09T06:33:31.057-07:00Tragedy and Blame<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">There
have been a lot of horrible tragedies in the last few weeks.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico that
crippled that island.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The earthquake in
Mexico that killed so many people and destroyed countless buildings and
homes.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The fires in California that has
caused so much displacement; and just this past week the horrible mass shooting
in Las Vegas by a strange man that killed 59 people including himself and
wounded nearly 500 more.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">There is no
answer for this terrible shooting, no motive, no way to understand what was in
the shooters mind.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We can only wonder
and grieve.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> In the wake of these awful things,
there has been a tendency to add blame to the list of tragedies. The mayor of San Juan has cried out for more
help from the United States and has received criticism from the President. Mr. Trump went on to tell us what a wonderful
job that he has done to deal with what that island needed. He minimized the
lack of timeliness in the efforts to help the people of Puerto Rico and took
credit for a “tremendous job”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> When we look at the Las Vegas
shooting, it is easy to find blame. We
certainly want to blame the shooter.
That is our first instinct; but there is a deeper place to look. We really
need to find fault with ourselves. We
have created a gun culture in this country.
The Second Amendment to the Constitution speaks of being certain that we
permit guns to be in the hands of our militia so that we can all be safe. In recent years, that amendment’s words have
been stretched and interpreted to permit anyone at all to possess a gun, even
semi-automatic guns that only have one purpose, to kill people. I remember NRA spokesperson Wayne LaPierre
saying “what we need to take care of a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a
gun.” With the probability that the shooter in Las Vegas had some mental issues
and the fact that he was high in a hotel and certainly unavailable to anyone
with a gun, I know that Mr. LaPierre’s comment has no meaning. In addition, I’ve never been able to
understand how a hunter would take an AK-47 into the woods to harvest a deer
for the table, let alone one that has been modified to shoot like a machine
gun. That makes no sense at all. If we want to assess blame for mass killings,
the place to look in inside ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> In Paul’s letter to the Philippians,
he speaks to them of his qualifications for receiving the love of God: He was circumcised, is a Hebrew, a Pharisee,
a persecutor of the church and blameless as to righteousness under the law. Yet
he goes on to say that whatever gains that he has because of all of this, he
has come to regard as loss because of the presence of Christ among us. Paul is
eloquent in speaking about the presence of Jesus Christ in this world as the
basis for all of us to be loved and understood by God. It is not because of what it is that we have
achieved, but what has been done for us by our Lord Jesus. He says that he wants to know Christ
completely, his sufferings and his death that he may obtain resurrection from
death. That is a powerful statement from
a man who had achieved the highest rank among his fellow Hebrews. He held the coats of the people who stoned
Stephen, the first martyr. He was on his
way to Damascus to further persecute Christians when he was knocked to the
ground, blinded and turned into a Christian himself. Paul was not above assessing blame. He blamed the Corinthian Christians for
fighting among themselves; but this passage from Philippians reaches deep into
his heart to show us his true religion.
He holds the Love of God as his highest goal, not perfection in his own
life. That is a lesson that we all need
to hear in these difficult times if we are going to ever find resolution. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Whatever
we decide to do about guns is important.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Blame is not helpful to a solution, it only complicates things.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Let’s lash out at the problem and find a way
to get our gun problem in control.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is
possible if we can come together.</span> </div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-82566964863853636192017-10-02T12:13:00.000-07:002017-10-02T12:13:03.358-07:00 The Depth of God's Love<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> When we visited the Middle East, we
were taken to a remarkable site in southern Jordan called Petra. This was the home of a tribe of Arabs called
the Nabataeans who raided the caravans of merchants who were going from Sheba
to Israel. It is a place with elaborate
carvings on the mountains of Corinthian columns as the entry doors to
tombs. It has a long history. It is also supposedly the place where Moses
struck the rock and produced water for his hungry people when they had been in
the desert for a long time without water. We rode down into the place on the
backs of donkeys and saw the beauty of Petra from the beginning. It was great to see such a place and it gave
me a sense that God is continually present in this world, even when we aren’t
very aware of that presence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> One of the things that amazed me at
Petra was the Kodak signs that adorned some of the tables of the people trying
to sell things to the tourists. Petra is
one of the most popular tourist sites in Jordan and the local residents make
some money selling souvenirs to the people who visit. Petra also was a place with an elaborate
water system, which helped the original residents of the place to fill their
needs, which reflects Moses ability to strike the rock and receive water for
the use of his people who were very thirsty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Our guide for this trip was Nancy
Lapp, a retired archeologist who explored many sites all over the Middle East
with her husband Paul. She taught us a
great deal about the places that we visited and about the religion that we all
professed. I thank God to this day that
we had that trip and that we learned so much from visiting those remarkable
places described in scripture that we read about all the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Even though I had had a seminary
education, being in the geographical presence of the places described in
scripture had great meaning for me. To
travel from Galilee to Jerusalem and to see Nazareth and Bethlehem made a great
difference for my education. I was able
to better understand what was said in the gospels and in Paul’s letters because
of these travels. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Jesus came to us to teach us the
extreme love of God. He spent his time
with us contradicting the religious leaders who constantly argued with
him. He told a great parable to show
them the extreme of their religion. He
offered the story of the vineyard owner who had two sons. He asked the first to go and to work in the
vineyard and he refused, but later changed his mind and went. The second son said that he would go and
work, but didn’t go. Jesus asked the
leaders which of the sons obeyed the will of the father. They correctly said that it was the first
son. Jesus said to them that the tax
collectors and the prostitutes will go into the kingdom of heaven before them
because John came full of righteousness and told them about God and they didn’t
believe him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. Jesus went on to say that even when you saw
it, you didn’t change your minds and believe him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Jesus was telling these leaders
about the difficulty that so many humans have with understanding the reality of
the Kingdom of God. This was certainly
proved out in the arrest, condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus for again
telling all of them the reality of what God has in mind for humanity. God bless us when we believe and know that
Jesus’ teaching was real for all of us in this world, and what our God wants
for us all is our presence beside him in his Kingdom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Going
to the Middle East helped me with this. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
was able to see the vastness of God’s work in this world and appreciate how deeply
humanity has been loved through the ages.</span> </div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632995335839897991.post-4551141553059948692017-09-25T08:27:00.000-07:002017-09-25T08:27:30.738-07:00Living In Love<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> When I got out of the army, I tried
to go back to the radio station where I had been working before I was
drafted. They didn’t only want a disc
jockey, they also wanted me to be an engineer so that they could easily fulfil
the Federal Communication Commission’s requirement for every station to have
qualified engineers as well as announcers on their staff. I would have had to go to a special school
for several weeks and get a certificate.
I didn’t want to do this, so I told Rosie that I was going to apply to a
television station for employment as an announcer. She told me that they better pay me more than
the radio station had paid me. I went
off to audition. Fortunately, I got the
job and came back and told her of my fortune and of the considerable increase
in salary that accompanied it. I loved
that work. It was back before the days
of teleprompters, so I had to memorize all of the commercials; and I learned to
do the weather there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Working has always been important to
me. I have enjoyed all of the careers
that I have chosen. When
the last TV station that employed me went bankrupt in the early seventies, I
spoke to the bishop of Pittsburgh about being an Episcopal priest. He was enthusiastic about that and made sure
that I was enrolled in Virginia Seminary that September. I did well in the seminary, graduated and was
ordained. I have loved this profession,
serving a number of churches and meeting some of the best people that I could
ever have known. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is trying
to describe the Kingdom of Heaven to his listeners. He tells them that it is
like a landowner who goes out in the morning to hire laborers for his
vineyard. He agrees with them on a daily
wage. He then goes out several more
times and hires more laborers each time.
At the end of the day, he pays them all the same wage that he agreed to
pay those who were hired first. The
early workers were upset and complained that they ought to be paid more. The landowner pointed out to them that they
had agreed when they were hired to be paid what they received. He told them that he ought to be able to do
as he pleased with his own money. He
finished this comment by saying <i>the last
shall be first and the first will be last.<b><o:p></o:p></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
is Jesus’ description of the Kingdom of Heaven, not the economy in which we
live. That is important for us to
know. There are a lot of inequities in
the world in which we live. Jesus is telling us that those inequities will
disappear when we come into his kingdom, even if we don’t think that it is fair
that the least who are among us are treated as we are. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> That is a beautiful description of
God’s kingdom, where love is the predominant feature. It is love that we are taught needs to be the
foundation of our world also. When we
love, we learn to forgive and to accept our differences. Ultimately this results in our learning from
each other, not constantly arguing. If
we can learn this, wars will cease and our economies will prosper and all of us
will live lives that make much more sense that then ones that we are living
now. That is what Jesus is trying to
teach to both his apostles and the crowds that come to hear him. He gathered up all of the hatred in the
world, went to Jerusalem and presented himself to the authorities, who arrested
him, handed him over to Pilate who ordered him to be whipped and
crucified. God’s response to this
incredible demonstration of hatred was the incredible love of Jesus’ resurrection. That is the message that we need to hold in
our hearts as the essence of our religion.
To learn to love above all things is the way of life that our God gives
us. When we learn this, our world will
drastically change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span> </div>
Rodgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00049340142362472535noreply@blogger.com0