Miscellaneous Missives

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb;  and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet… - John 20:1-18  Continue reading here » But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. - Luke 24:1-12  Continue reading here » Countless songs have been composed and art created about this scene at the empty tomb. We even have a few different gospel accounts of who saw what and how. Disciples are racing to the tomb, including Peter, who betrayed Jesus just days before. Then there’s Mary who has come to say good bye one last time.  These disciples who went to the tom...

For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant. - Job 14:7-9 Watch and wait with hope. I think Lent ends today.   While Lent is about contemplation and reflection, Easter is the time of rebirth.  It's the hope.  We sit and wait for Easter.  Spring is also a time of rebirth.  After being gone for a week, I was a bit disappointed to see the snow with not blooms or flowers in sight.  It's coming, and I need to patiently wait.  This isn't completely true.  Blooms were to be received today.  My dad (on his way through town) picked me up from the airport and took me out to a late lunch/early dinner.  He brought a tulip plant which was blooming.  More importantly, he brought malted milk Easter eggs... de...

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.  Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast. On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. - Psalm 22:1-2, 9-11 Where is the God to whom the psalmist is crying out? Where, in the psalmist’s most desperate time of need is ‘my God’?  For some, it is difficult to perceive a God who does not come to our aid; who does not respond when we call. For others, this is the God they know: one who remains silent in the face of trouble and of doubt.  Where is the God, who, up until this point, seems to have been present? We do not know. We cannot say.  Today we remember a Friday unlike any other. We remember a dy...

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. - 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 We share something in common with the Corinthians who Paul is writing to: a people living in a changing world and an increasingly globalized city with new traditions, cultures and spiritual practices. They had corrupted aspects of the church’s life. Paul writes to a forgetful people who have forgotten who they were. Like the Corinthians, it may be easy to forget that that we belong to God; to forget that our individual spiritual expe...

Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O LORD, make haste to help me! Let those be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire to hurt me. Let those who say, “Aha, Aha!” turn back because of their shame. Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!” But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay! - Psalm 70:1-5 Can you place yourself in the psalmist’s place? Could these words, crying for deliverance and help, be words that you have uttered at some point? Have you heard the voice of those ridiculing you, cry “Aha, Aha!”? Or perhaps there are those in our midst that cry out as the psalmist does. Are we too uncomfortable with their lament that we try to find the ways to quickly look past it and keep walking on? You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay!  How can we, in these...

Today's view.  The guys from yesterday found me prime seating.    It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. - Isaiah 49:6 A servant to raise up and restore? A light to the nations? Kind of a big responsibility. How do we do that when we sometimes struggle to be a light to our friends, our communities and our churches?  God has come to be present in the midst of exile and hopelessness, to reveal God’s love, life, and goodness in the lives of plain, ordinary people. People like us. Like our neighbors. Like our co-workers and family members and friends. Maybe even our enemies. Through us, the world will be made new. In the grit and despair of Holy Week, remember that we know how the story ends. We  are called to be a light to the nations. "We are called to b...

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. What is it that you rejoice this day? Wow!  Some days the prompts are super challenging and some days...  What is it that I rejoice this day?  I rejoice the beach and the ocean.  Today hasn't been perfect.  Some problems have arisen in paradise.  When I arrived this morning, my room wasn't ready.  Of course this was not a problem because my swimsuit, sunscreen and sunglasses were in my carry on.  Three problems did arise.  1) I forgot to put sandals in the carry on.  2) I didn't have a room number to charge my Fresca, chips, and salsa.  3) I needed a towel card.  Perhaps the beach guys remembered me from last year because two and three were not problems at all.   Oh, I did have one more problem.  I spent the afternoon talking to a couple from Canada and a group that arrived for a wedding, so I didn't get any reading done.  Perh...

A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us’; and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” - Luke 23:27-31 Yep, that's the verse they chose for today.  Nope, I'm not going to address it, but I have chosen another verse. Luke 19:28-40     English Standard Version (ESV)      The Triumphal Entry 28  And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29  When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent t...

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a wa...

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”  (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)  Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” - John 8:1-12 Passions can sometimes get the best of us. They make us do crazy things. In this text, we see an ex...

Pond by the Access to the Bike Trail at my Condo   Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. John 12:1-3 What defines home for you? Is it the people? Certain physical elements? Where do you feel most at home? I addressed home a bit when the word was SETTLE , .  Home for me is probably defined by physical elements.  Since I grew up near the water, I've always been drawn to the water.  When I decided to quit my teaching job in Iowa to move to a larger area, water was a consideration.  Although I didn't really know anyone in Minneapolis, I was attracted by the lakes.  Of course people are always important, and that is why ...

Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:13-14 The Message phrases these verses in Philippians like this: I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back. We’re not experts at following Christ. But we try. Every day. Beloved: Where is God beckoning you? Will you run and not turn back? I appreciate translation from the message.  "I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back."  Posting about these prompts and passages has giv...

Native Universe: Voices of Indian America (Native American Tribal Leaders, Writers, Scholars, and Story Tellers) Carriers of the Wheel ~N. Scott Momaday This is the Wheel of Dreams Which is carried on their voices, By means of which their voices turn And center upon being. It encircles the First World, This powerful wheel. They shape their songs upon the wheel And spin the names of the earth and sky; The aboriginal names.  They are old men, or men Who are old in their voices,  And they carry the wheel among the camps, Saying: Come, come, Let us tell the old stories,  Let us sing the sacred songs. When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. - Psalm 126:1-3 There’s an element of reminiscing here. A bit of nost...

Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.  - Isaiah 43: 16-18 God of wilderness and water, your Son was baptized and tempted as we are.  Guide us through this season, that we may not avoid struggle, but open ourselves to blessing, through the cleansing depths of repentance and the heaven-rending words of the Spirit. Amen*. *Reproduced from Revised Common Lectionary Prayers copyright © 2002 Consultation on Common Texts I'm not really sure what Rethink Church wants me to get out of today's word and verse, so I'm glad they included the poem.  First, I appreciate the line "God of wilderness and water."  The poem says a lot although I'm no a fan of the word "repentance" or "heaven-rending...

Remnants of Winter I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. - Isaiah 43:19 How many of us are so comfortable with the way things are that we cannot perceive what God is doing or about to do in our midst? Whether that’s in our personal lives, at work or in out faith communities, how quick are we to say “We’ve never done it that way before?”  What new thing will you do so that you can perceive what God is doing in your midst?   I'm not sure what new thing I'm going to do to perceive God, but I do feel like we're making our way through the wilderness.  More snow is predicted for tonight.  This morning when I woke up it was 11º.  The wilderness of winter has been long and perhaps overstayed it's welcome.  Although the snow will cover the ugliness that remains of winter, I'm ready for spring.  I will perceive God in my midst when the buds beg...

Daffodils from Daffodil Days American Cancer Society. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. - Psalm 32:7 Lindsay Armstrong, in Feasting on the Word* , writes: At our deepest core, to be human is not to be a sinner but to be loved. To be righteous is not to be sinless but to be forgiven and freed. To be in Christian community is not to downplay brokenness but to accept it and be transformed by the One who healed brokenness on the cross and whose name is and always has been Love. What a joy it is to know that though we are imperfect people, we are beloved children of a God whose perfect love surrounds us at all times; whose very name and nature is and always will be Love. Let's be honest.  I don't need Rethink Church to remind me that I'm "imperfect."  Today's trip to buy swimsuits reminded me each time I tried on a different suit.  Although I did not count, I probably t...

I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you. Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the LORD. Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart . - Psalm 32:8-11 This Lenten photo-a-day project relies heavily on social media. Those who interact in these social spaces regularly can attest to the amount of snark that can escalate when certain topics arise. Election season typically makes a great case for this. Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you. It’s easy to let our emotions rage; our tempers get out of control when we have a smartphone or a computer separating us. And sure, there are valid ...