Heaven is Descent

It condescends by descending to us.

April 22, 2013 By 2 Comments

by Clint Schnekloth

New Testament Reading:  Revelations 21:1-6

For Sunday, April 28, 2013: Year B—Easter 5

We do not go to heaven; heaven comes to us.

This bears repeating.

We do not go to heaven; heaven comes to us.

Belinda Carlisle may not have intended it as a gloss on Revelation, but her song does nicely: “Ooh heaven is a place on earth/they say in heaven love comes first/We’ll make heaven a place on earth.” It could be the duet sung between Christ and his bride. It might also be the basis for a great bible study. [Read more...]

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Crushed (Another View)!

When people get crushed, is it sometimes God’s fault?

February 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

by Michael Danner

Epistle Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1 – 13

For Sunday, March 3, 2013; Year C—Lent 3

Two observations and an initial question…

Observation #1: Good things happen and bad things happen.

Observation #2: Some people are good and some people are bad.

How are these two observations connected, if at all? Well, according to today’s epistle text, sometimes God crushes people who are doing the wrong thing.

Ouch!

Paul speaks of his Jewish forefathers. They followed God through the hardship and trials of the Exodus and came out victors with Moses. They all had the same spiritual food and drink and drank from the same spiritual rock which was Christ. Unfortunately, it didn’t take in the same way. Paul says, “God was not pleased with most of them and their bodies were scattered over the desert.” [Read more...]

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Prayer and the Automatic Teller Machine

July 24, 2011 By 2 Comments

Is God an ATM?

by Karen Gibson

Psalm Reading: Psalm 17:1-7, 15

For Sunday, July 31, 2011: Year A—Ordinary 18

I was right. He was wrong. He went to bed. I let the dogs out into the back yard. I flopped in a chair and started to pray (it helps if you kind of pray the following to the tune of In The Still Of The Night).

In the still, still of the night, hear me O LORD, hear me right, hear me this night. I am so right, he is so wrong, I’m doing your will, and he’s being a big pill. You will listen, you always do, I’m seeking refuge, and I’ll find it in you. My man’s gotta pay, for all he had to say, when I wake in the morning, I’ll be OK (and he’ll see it my way!) Do wop, do wop, if he don’t!!!

Two Readings

Psalm 17 is a song/prayer too. After introductory verses 1-3, it displays a nice chiastic form. However, the lectionary folks whacked out some verses, so we’re looking at the whole psalm.  I’m going at this a couple of ways:  First Reading-what if Psalm 17 treated God like some kind of cosmic ATM that automatically responds on cue.  Second Reading–what if our ATM God doesn’t automatically respond as expected?

Just enter your PIN number (aka First Reading).

Lord I have my stuff together. Hear my prayer. I’m a good. I know you will hear my prayer. My lips are uber-clean. You know right from wrong, and I’m right. If you test me, I’ll pass. You know I’ve laid my evil ways aside. I’m a peaceable person. I follow you. You take care of me. You love those who seek refuge in you, especially those who are high-tailing it from their enemies.

[Read more...]

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I’m Sorry, Did You Say Something?

June 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The adventure of listening for God in the midst the sounds of world.

by Bruce Reyes-Chow

 Gospel Reading:  Matthew 11:16-19,25-30

For Sunday, July 3, 2011: Year A – Ordinary 14

I am notorious for allowing myself to get distracted by shiny things. Be it some wonderful conversation on twitter or a good mystery I can get unexpectedly drawn into my own world for hours at a time. When there is room in my life to do this, these things can be wonderful. I gain new insights, I disengage from stressful situations and I become more balanced.

Shiny Things

But when there is something that I must focus on, these shiny things are all of a sudden not so good for me. As often as I can experience grace in these clarion calls to engage in something unexpected, I can also be drawn AWAY from projects and people that I need to pay more attention to.  I listen, I am drawn in and five hours later—I have moved from a space of unexpected discovery in to blatant irresponsibility. I allow myself to listen to the wrong rhythm and song in my life.

We do the same thing as a people and a society. We lose the ability to listen for where and how God is calling our attention. We develop patterns in our life that create blinders to what we are supposed to be doing in exchange for doing what we WANT to be doing.

[Read more...]

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Heroin Addicts and their Parents

January 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Maybe God is a Little More Human than We Think

by Mike Baughman

Old Testament Reading: Micah 6:1-8

For Sunday, January 30, 2011: Year A – Epiphany 4

“I don’t know, Mike,” Kellie confided to me on the phone, “I just feel like he doesn’t care about me. I mean, he says that he loves me but he doesn’t really do the stuff he says he’s going to do for me and he just doesn’t treat me all that well.” Before I can say anything, she asks the question I knew was coming:

“What am I doing wrong?”

Of course, she wasn’t doing anything wrong. She was like so many other teenagers and parents of teens with whom I’ve had nearly the exact same conversation. She reminded herself of all the good things she’s done for her boyfriend only to see a negative result.

She was insecure—which naturally happens when someone we adore mistreats us (whether it’s a boy/girlfriend, spouse, child or friend). Because he treated her poorly, she assumed it was her fault. It couldn’t be his fault…he’s amazing! That’s why she loves him!

[Read more...]

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Can We Just Keep The Nice Bits?

October 31, 2010 By 1 Comment

Welcome to Psalm 149 – the one that might turn you into a Marcionite

by Nadia Bolz-Weber

Psalm Reading: Psalm 149

For Sunday, November 7, 2010 Year C - All Saints

You gotta love a party psalm. Everyone coming together to sing praises to God; the good, faithful people of God rejoicing in song and dance; women in bangles and swirling dresses, maidens playing lyres, children banging tambourines. I can just see it: God’s people all singing joyful hymns and praises to God. It’s a delightful scene.

If Only

If only we could end at verse 6a. If only. But instead we are stuck with a verse that begins with “Let the high praise of God be in their throats” and ends with “a two-edged sword in their hands.” In Psalm 149 we basically go from joy and song and dance to swords and vengeance and chains.

So, on All Saints Day, the day in which we celebrate the heroes of the faith perhaps we do well to ask a couple hard questions, like: Why can’t Psalm 149 end at verse 6a?

[Read more...]

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Bugging God, Irritated Christ

July 19, 2010 By 9 Comments

Is the Lord’s Prayer a compromise for the Disciples who value recitation and repetition over relationship with the living God through the Holy Spirit?

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading: Luke 11:1-13

For Sunday, July 25, 2010: Year C - Ordinary 17

There is a lot written about the first part of this text (1-4), so much that I barely even have any questions about it. The Lord’s Prayer, the Pater Noster, this prayer (or prayer outline depending on how you read) that Jesus teaches his disciples is not unique to him. The concepts and phrases appear at various places in the Hebrew Bible and resemble the Kaddish. The rest of the pericope, however, is ripe for Hardest Questioning.

Bugging God

The parable of the Importunate Neighbor, is often read as admonition to persistence in prayer. But I am struck by the use of the negative example: “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.” The neighbor doesn’t want to give his friend any bread, but he does — not out of love but irritation.

This is how Jesus wants us to think of prayer? So if you ask (a lot) and search (without letting up), and knock (relentlessly), you will receive, find, and have the door opened up to you.

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Threats from Heaven

July 12, 2010 By 4 Comments

When is injustice so unspeakable that it demands violent response?

by Russell Rathbun

Old Testament Reading: Amos 8:1-12

For Sunday, July 18, 2010: Year C, Ordinary 16

The book of Amos contains the famous articulation of God’s call for justice, “Let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like an ever—flowing stream” (Amos 5:24). It’s been quoted by Martin Luther King Jr., Jim Wallis, and countless others. It appears on bumper stickers, t-shirts and coffee mugs. What they usually fail to point out, however, is that God’s water of justice was sent to drown God’s children.

Prosperity…on the Backs of the Poor and Powerless

The Prophet Amos is called in a time of relative prosperity for Israel, but like most times of prosperity it is brought about on the backs of the poor and powerless. In chapter 8 God tells Amos that God is so outraged by the way the poor are treated that there is no more mercy for them — only wrath. God shows him a basket of ripe summer fruit to illustrate that his wrath is fully ripened and is ready blow. Because God’s children have “trampled on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,” God says, “the end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass their way. The songs of the temple shall become wailing in that day……The dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place.”

[Read more...]

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The Bible Unconscious

June 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

How Do You Read?

Psalm 77

“Has His kindness ceased forever, have visions from Him come to and end? Have the inmost parts of God dried up?” (77:8) Up all night pacing the floor, singing, praying, unable to sleep or lay down, tying to make something happen, trying to hear a word, see a vision—nothing. The writer of Psalm 77 even speculates that God might be sick; that something has dried up inside God; that maybe his right hand (the one that reaches to us) has withered.

I want more

[Read more...]

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