Anna explained that unless, I was prepared to be born again, under the tutelage of her pastor, I would need to find someplace else to live. Metanoia is an invitation to think new thoughts. We pray to theLord. There werent many of us who made the effort. Posted on September 28, 2022 by peddiebill. Among the passages was the text which is assigned for this very Sunday from Pauls letter to the church in Corinth. Jesus said, I have come that they might have life and may live it abundantly! LIFE and not death. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. In an instant I wiggled free, spun around and connected with what I figured would be a fatal blow. The EMPIRE OF DIVINITY is not yet here. This story was written by the anonymous gospel-storyteller we know as John some 70 years after Jesus' death, some twenty years after the Jewish war with Rome in which the Empire destroyed the Temple, raised most of Jerusalem to the ground, and sent Jews and the followers of Jesus into exile. (1 Kings 19:1-12) It is about a prophet named Elijah, who was struggling to understand the will of the they knew as YHWH, the HEBREW name for the MYSTERY we call God, which can be translated as I AM, WHO AM or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE or the GREAT I AM. O God, who gifts us moments of amazement, help us to accept the rhythm of the ordinary and the extraordinary that we may retain a steady awareness of your presence both in grey days and in bright. We join our tears to theirs and when we have no more tears to cry, we roll up our sleeves and we do what we can to help them. I was about to hit him again, when for no apparent reason Alan released me from his grip. A natural body is sown, and a spiritual body is raised up. by our unbelief and lack of understanding of Gods presence in us. Only a fool would leave to search for the stray who might be wounded, damaged, dying, not interested in being rescued. My own desire to resist the urge to respond to violence with violence weakens with every report of the injustices perpetrated as innocent lives are lost. I affirm the resurrection each and every time I look into your eyes and see the face of CHRIST.. We must put aside our expectations of a quick and easy fix and settle in for the difficult generational evolution of our species. Your rhetoric is sublime! If you have already donated, thank you! So, let us forget about what we have been conditioned to look for in order to see what needs to be seen, today in the midst the violence in which our world seems incapable of forsaking. I dont know about you but for most of my life I have been taught that the place to learn about God is the Bible. February 19, 2023 - Transfiguration Sunday Majestic Lord, transfigure our simple gifts in a way that will inspire all people to proclaim your everlasting message of love. Surely, Jesus cant be pointing to the GREAT I AM, the MYSTERY which we call GOD and saying that GOD is a fool. It was so good to be there, where they could see in Jesus the face of CHRIST. Only a fool would be such a steward as this. Crystals mother called for re-enforcements. I found out later that dozens, I mean dozens of young people were slain in the Spirit, that is, struck down onto the floor, writhing and shaking, hootin and a hollering. Anna knew that Jesus was sent by God as a sacrifice for human sin, to pay the price for our evil ways. As Jesus invited his friends to drink, mindful of a relationship of love and trust between ourselves and the spirit of life, On this Easter, we pray in Your name. *Leader: Congregation of Jesus Christ, since the Lord has blessed us with his Word (and Holy Supper), let us praise his name with thanksgiving. Heavenly bodies have a beauty of their own, and earthly bodies have a beauty of their own. We remember on the night when Jesus and the disciples There was work to do. I had to confess right then and there, in my twentieth year of life, I struggled to believe that any GOD who sent His only Child to die, on a cross, is worth getting up on a Sunday morning for. I expect solutions. In those sepia images of sad, forlorn, frightened faces. This week, I have been transfigured by the face of CHRIST, not glowing on a mountaintop, but weeping. Let us be resurrection by practicing resurrection, that is by resisting violence, resisting injustice, so that the Reign of LOVE ushers in the peace we long for the SHALOM which is abundant living. Starters for Sunday. We have technology and access to wisdom. Thich Nhat Hanh. What kind of body will they have? What a stupid question! Our gospel-storyteller wrote his story within a deeply wounded community to provide the much need hope for their own resurrection. The trouble is, we all live in the 21st century and we know that the definition of what it means to be human that these stories rely upon no longer rings true. Many of the pages are "decorative" but material can simply be cut and pasted into a word-processing program. With open minds and hearts, may the God-in-us find generous and courageous expression in our words and actions as we endeavor to make the presence of God evident in our world. Alas, the sun does indeed shine at midnight in the summer months, but in Norway summer does not include the month of August. ELOHIM, the GOD who is the feminine plural of MAJESTY, said to Elijah: Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of YHWEH, for YAHWEH is about to pass by. Imagine the MYSTERY, which is the I AM, the very essence of BEING is about to pass by. Alas, the power of Pauls rhetoric has waned over the centuries. If you have already donated, thank you! Let us offer a sacrifice in the form of embodied LOVE. The basileia ton THEON, the Empire of GOD, the GOD which Jesus knew as ABBA, a LOVING PARENT, the basileia ton THEON, the Reign of the GOD that IS LOVE, where justice and not violence creates the kind of peace in which everyone has enough to live the abundant life Jesus insisted he came to give to the world. I had three jobs, but back in the day, the grocery store, and the Legion Hall, where I worked as a cashier and a waitress, they closed on Sundays. The liturgy was adapted by Dr. Bert Polman from a form prepared by the Liturgical Committee of the Christian Reformed Church for use during an Easter Service; this liturgy can be used for all Sundays in Eastertide. Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote life. And God called thefirmamentHeaven.. Shalom. jQuery('#submit-action').attr('href','/paupress/?rel=pauContent&pau_type='+thisact); Forgive us, Merciful One. Only a fool Would fret about the loss of a small insignificant coin. Now let us greet one another: I honor the Divinity Within you Namaste Peace. Resist reading into the parables a too small personal shepherd, woman, or father to act the part of a too small recklessly, foolish god. read more Progressive Christian Lent Course 2015 Having this "catch-cry" as a . It is a lovely liturgical offering. But when I became an adult, I put childish ways aside. So, when you catch a glimpse of the REIGN of LOVE, celebrate and as you celebrate remember to invite others into the party. The response is Alithos Aneste! When all the people have received, they rise to give thanks.]. We give thanks for the spirit of new life active in our lives as it was in the life of Jesus. Just like Thomas, who had the good sense to doubt the resurrection, most of us have been conditioned to look for the physical resuscitation of a corpse; a bonified, pardon the pun, a bonified, actual physical body, complete with wounds and all. You can put it If that means violence, well maybe Im not the pacifist I claim to be. Disappointed I resigned myself to abandoning our plans to camp on the hillsides which envelope the port of Narvik. Too, many Hollywood movies, inspired me to flirt with violence as I yearned for some secret agents to take him out. I suspect that pulling brothers together who have genuine axes to grind is the kind of recklessness that is worth the risk, if those siblings can learn to work together to pursue justice. When he placed his hand on my forehead, I stiffened my entire being, because there was no way I was going down. Evolving beyond the myth that violence can solve our problems, or bring us peace, is vital. A quick glace toward the shoreline confirmed that I was well beyond where I would safely swim on a summer day and a strange sort of vertigo began to take hold over me. Resist with reckless abandon, our fear of the very passions which flow from the LOVE which is the MYSTERY which allures us onto the pathways of justice and peace. It is a scary proposition for a pastor to venture out on a journey without the familiar trappings of familiar liturgy. Jesus taught this. Alleluia! that we gather this morning and remember together that . 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Easter is the sky that encloses the broken egg. You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it unless it was for nothing that you believed. See if you can pick them out. Sure, it would be nice to just sit here in the relative comfort and safety of all that violence has built and maintained for us. Maybe if we are unwilling to fight, all we can do is join our tears to the tears of that little Ukrainian family. For far too long, my conditioning caused me to see this story as the story about casting away doubts and believing in Jesus physical resurrection. During the breaking of bread, the Lamb of God or other appropriate song or chant is sung. The story I want to tell you comes from the Irish author Frank McCourts autobiography entitled Tis. You are invited to this table of life as we join with each other and seek communion with God. Christianitys morbid preoccupation with Jesus violent death will not usher in the Kin-dom of DIVINITY which Jesus lived for. BAT KOL, the DAUGHTER OF A SOUND or as some translations put it the DAUGHTER OF A VOICE. Our very own lifestyles, demand what they are selling. The Cross and Easter are two faces of the one mystery. Church that is. The Parliamentarians victory may have looked like the way to peace, but it was no peace at all, it was as Dom Crossan puts it, just a lull in the violence. But those fools made their billions serving us, satisfying our desires, fortifying our comforts, delivering our lifestyles to our doorsteps. You can skip to the end and leave a response. healed those who believed in him, received all who sought him. Listen carefully. christmas featuring two prayers suitable for including in a Christmas card to a friend. DONATE NOW! Prayer of Thanksgiving jQuery(document).on('change', '#submission-action', function(){ How double-dog dare I? Yesterday, I travelled out onto the frozen surface of Lake Simcoe. Pain and suffering perpetrated by our species vain conviction that violence is the way to peace. 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