Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Teaching and Healing

Wednesday, February 29, 2012 - Week of 1 Lent
John Cassian, Abbot at Marseilles, 433

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 953)
Psalms 119:49-72 (morning)        49, [52] (evening)
Genesis 37:25-36
1 Corinthians 2:1-13
Mark 1:29-45

In Mark's Gospel today we see a snapshot of a day in the ministry of Jesus.  It begins on Saturday, the Sabbath, when Jesus and the disciples attend worship and teaching at the synagogue in Capernaum.  They come to Peter's home, where Peter's mother is ill.  Jesus heals her and she serves them.  (The Greek word for serve, "diakonein," is the root of our term "deacon.")  When the Sabbath ends at sundown Jesus begins his work.

The ministry of Jesus is characterized by healing and teaching.  His power is particularly manifest in the casting out of demons.  People who are broken or suffering, people who have lost their center or their congruity -- find that in his presence they experience wholeness and health, meaning, congruity and centeredness. 

In the morning, Jesus withdraws for his own intimate prayer with God.  He is renewed in his centeredness upon God.  He continues to move from place to place, even though there are more people who need his healing in Capernaum.  He goes to the neighboring towns, he says, "so that I may proclaim the message there also."  Healing and teaching.

The center of the teaching-message that he proclaims is the Kingdom of God, the near and inbreaking reign of God.  It is a message that is threatening to the established authorities.  It is threatening to the religious authorities because Jesus teaches that there is no external mediator between God and us.  The gifts of blessing, forgiveness and divine presence are ours without need of recourse to the Temple or priests or other authorities.  The Kingdom of God is among you.  His message is threatening to the political authorities because it imagines the world as it would be if God were Emperor, not Caesar.  He teaches of a society, culture and economy motivated by the virtues of compassion, love, generosity and equality -- a society that overturns all of the power and authority of the established orders.  It is the kind of message that can get somebody in trouble with the established orders.

Teaching and healing.  Word and sacrament.  Religious/political discourse and hands-on service to the needs of others.  Walking the talk.

That is the calling that we are invited to enter into as the church, the community of Jesus.  We are to continue his message of forgiveness and freedom.  And we are to continue to reach out in concrete and real ways to respond to the brokenness and need of our neighbors.  Talking is not enough.  Doing good without challenging the power and principalities is not enough. 

In our reading from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, we hear him speak of the spirit that empowers his ministry of healing and teaching.  He has embraced the cross.  He has died into Christ's death and been raised in a new life in the Spirit.  This new life makes him bold to do and to teach.  His orientation is no longer toward "a wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish," but God's wisdom.  God's very Spirit is now present in and through him -- motivating him to follow in the way Jesus has shown:  to heal and bring wholeness and congruity to all human brokenness, and to proclaim a new Kingdom ruled by the virtues of compassion, love, generosity and equality. 

That is our calling today.  Religious/political discourse and hands-on service to the needs of others.

Lowell

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link:
--
Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html --  Click for Divine Hours

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The Foolish Cross

Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - Week of 1 Lent
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, Educators, 1964, 1904

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 953)
Psalms 45 (morning)        47, 48 (evening)
Genesis 37:12-24
1 Corinthians 1:20-31
Mark 1:14-28

"For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength." (1 Cor. 1:25a)

Paul addresses head-on the obstacle that makes his proclamation difficult for many to believe -- the cross.  Why would anyone worship someone who was executed as a capital criminal?  It's like someone today saying our God died in an electric chair.  The Rabbis will tell you that the scripture says "cursed be any one who hangs on a tree." (Dt. 21:23)  The cross is the Roman solution to threat to order from rebels and insurrection.  Some Greeks will speak of the impassibility of God.  Why would anyone worship a God who is subject to the vicissitudes of  human life?  God should not suffer?  God is beyond change.  God on a cross.  Scandal and foolishness.

But among those who were not "wise by human standards" or "of noble birth," among "the weak" and the "low and despised," this story that God enters into our deepest despair and pain and overcomes it is "wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption."  It flips on its ear the elitist projections about God.  God is with us in our most desperate times.  God soaks up evil and violence; God endures injustice and cruelty; God experiences pain and abandonment -- and God answers with nothing but love. 

Dorothy Sayers says it nicely:  "God did not abolish the fact of evil.  He transformed it.  He did not stop the crucifixion.  He rose from the dead."

For those who are looking for a powerful, triumphant tribal Lord who overcomes our enemies with might and violence, this weak God looks foolish.  For those who are looking for some pure heavenly escape from the change and sufferings of this world, this vulnerable God looks foolish.  But for those of us who are weak and low, in despair and pain, this is a God who understands.  This is a God we can trust because God knows what we are suffering.  This God gives meaning to suffering.  And when you are miserable, it makes all the difference if you believe that God is with us and that God uses our human misery to heal the world.  It is the wise foolishness of the cross.

Lowell

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link:
--
Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html --  Click for Divine Hours

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Monday, February 27, 2012

Beginnings

Monday, February 27, 2012 -- Week of 1 Lent
George Herbert, Priest, 1633

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 953)
Psalms 41, 52 (morning)        44 (evening)
Genesis 37:1-11
1 Corinthians 1:1-19
Mark 1:1-13

We enter the Daily Office Lectionary for Lent today.  Each of the three readings begins a period of sequential reading from scripture.  Today we begin the Joseph saga in Genesis.  We also start Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth, and we open the first gospel, the Gospel of Mark. 

Joseph's story begins ominously.  He's the special child -- the youngest and favorite.  There are signs that he is precocious and gifted, but naive and spoiled as well.  His self-centered dream images provoke his family.  We can feel the jealousy take root. 

Mark's gospel begins with a special child -- "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" -- but we get no birth narrative as in Matthew and Luke.  It begins with the "voice of one crying out in the wilderness."  But this story begins in humility rather than jealousy.  John the baptizer looks forward to God's fulfillment of the baptism that John initiates.  And Jesus receives a vision that he is a father's beloved, but instead of the naive gloating of Joseph, he intuitively follows the leading of the Spirit into the wilderness for a time of testing about this calling.

Paul's letter will be all about the complexities of being the beloved, called children of God -- a gifted and special people.  But with those gifts comes responsibilities.  How do we use the wisdom and freedom we've been given?  Will pride or power spoil the gifts?

The people I admire and look up to are people who seem very special.  They have gifts and talents that seem wonderful and remarkable to me.  But when I look a little closer, the best of them seem almost unaware of their giftedness.  What they do just seems like what they should be doing.  For them, it's no big deal.  It's nothing special.  And the best of them betray very little self-consciousness about their wisdom or leadership.  They are just doing the work they've been given to do.

Each of us is a special child.  Beloved and gifted.  How will we use our gifts?  Reflectively after a time of testing and intention, or thoughtlessly with an immature naivete?  In service or selfishness?  In pride or humility?  Over each of us has been spoken the divine blessing -- "You are my Child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."  Now, what will we do with that?

Lowell
Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link:
--
Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html --  Click for Divine Hours

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Friday, February 24, 2012

"The Lord is Near"

Friday, February 24, 2012 -- Lent
Saint Matthias the Apostle

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer)
EITHER the readings for Friday of Week of Last Epiphany, p. 951
Psalms 95* & 31 (morning)        35 (evening)
Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32
Philippians 4:1-9
John 17:9-19 

OR the readings for St. Matthias, p. 997
Morning:  Psalm 80; 1 Samuel 16:1-13; 1 John 2:18-25
Evening:  Psalm 33; 1 Samuel 12:1-5; Acts 20:17-35

I read the readings for Friday of Last Epiphany


"The Lord is near."  What a gentle encouragement.  Much of the intention of the many prayer disciplines is to create in us a constant sense of God's presence.  Classical spirituality calls it "recollection" -- the state of being constantly aware of God and responsive to God's presence.  Some use the word "mindfulness".  A gentle reminder -- "the Lord is near" -- repeated over and over can help plant a mindful consciousness within us.  Some people repeat the Jesus Prayer or some other mantra for that purpose. 

I love the way that phrase "the Lord is near" is nestled within Paul's beautiful hymn that we read today.  "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.  Let your gentleness be known to everyone.  The Lord is near.  Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

That's my wife's favorite passage of scripture.  It is one that she memorized as a child.  I think I too can say it "by heart."  It is good to take the time to memorize such truths. We say we know them by heart.  They dwell in our hearts.  When you have prayed certain prayers for many years, you know them by heart.  Like the Lord's Prayer.  In a deep sense, these words of God dwell within us when we know them by heart.

I intend to make it a habit today to recall over and over again "the Lord is near."  And then, every once in a while, when I'm not having to concentrate, I'm going to try to repeat by heart Paul's beautiful words, "Rejoice in the Lord always..."  Doing little exercises like that is a way of following Paul's advice in the subsequent passage.  He tells us to think about certain things -- "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."  Remembering "the Lord is near" is a brief way of doing all of this.
______

P.S.  Today's passage in Ezekiel is an important one.  Ezekiel challenges an old tradition that punishment is passed on for the sins of previous generations.  Jeremiah has a similar opinion (Jer. 31:29-30).  Their words dispute the traditions from the Ten Commandments and elsewhere, "...punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation..."  (Ex. 20:5)

Lowell

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link:
--
Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html --  Click for Divine Hours

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas