Christmastide

For the season of Christmas (December 25th-January 5th, the 12 days of Christmas!), the blog will be on a holy rest. Regular blog action resumes on Epiphany (January 6th). Enjoy these holy days!

Question Friday: giving thanks

For what are you grateful?

Question Friday: autumnal wandering

What is your favorite outdoor activity for fall?

Advent e-votions, day 15

Philippians 4.4-7

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 requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Rejoice in the Lord always.” We should feel happiness and joy in God. “The Lord is near,” they tell us. Feel joy and happiness that God is near us. That is Advent! God is so close to us at this time. One week until we celebrate a miracle that surpasses all understanding. God has given his son to us to help save us. Despite all of our concerns and worries, God is here to say that everything will be just fine.

But I, as an imperfect human, don’t quite get it. “Do not worry, about anything,” this verse says. Really, nothing? That is so hard for me to wrap my head around. I come from a family of worriers. We worry that everyone is safe, we worry about our health, and we worry about how we are doing in our jobs. We worry about the world in which we live. Worry, worry, worry! I’m sure we are not alone in this, but I would tend to guess that we also aren’t alone in what we do to alleviate our worries – we pray. If I’m worried about a conversation I have to have at work the next day, I pray for guidance. If I’m worried about a friend or family member, I pray for caring hands. If I’m worried about the music we will share during a service, I pray for support. Prayer is an amazing gift that we are given by God. God gives us this ability to close our eyes, gather our thoughts, and speak to someone we know is listening, and then wait for an answer. The answer is not always what we want it to be either. That is where the waiting is the hardest part. To know that an answer will come, but we don’t know if it will be soon or if it will be what we want to hear.

I’m not sure that I’ll ever get to the point of never worrying, but I can see myself getting to the point of allowing the peace of God to guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus. I can just imagine what that feels like – freedom, warmth, and lightness. In the meantime, God is here to say that everything will be just fine.

Prayer
God, help me to feel your presence near me in this Advent season. Help me to lay my worries in your hands, so that I may rejoice always. Amen.

–may the Spirit move through the words of Scott Iddings

Bible in 90 Days: Day 72

BiND:  Day 72

 

Mark, Act 2.

 

One of the things I noticed while reading Act 2 (from 8.27 to the end) of Mark today is the focus Mark places on the changing of power relationships and dynamics.  Did you notice?  There were multiple instances of children—who are not only powerless, but vulnerable and weak as well—being welcomed and even leaders in the kingdom, of “the last shall be first,” and of the disciples wrangling over who’s best (remember James and John, asking if they can sit at Jesus’ right and left hand?  Remember who’s actually at Jesus’ right and left at the “end” of the story?  two criminals.  Interesting…), there’s the story of the rich man who keeps all the commandments but still is missing something—Jesus suggests that those who maintain the status quo, who willingly participate in a system of inequity (like the one prevalent in both Jesus’ day and ours), will have a tough time participating in God’s kingdom of equity and justice.

 

One of the things I find fascinating about Mark is that there are several endings—it’s practically a “choose-your-own adventure” story!  The oldest (and shortest) ending stops at 16.8.  The women, again, have come to the tomb and are the first to witness the resurrection, the first to see the kingdom of God in glory, the ones who meet and converse with angels.  And then, for the first time in the whole book of Mark someone is TOLD to go tell people what happened (before now, Jesus has been saying “don’t tell” over and over again!)—but the women flee interror and amazement and say nothing because of their fear.  Now, obviously, they told someone because otherwise we’d have no story today, but I just love that honesty (typical of Mark)—the women had witnessed something so incredible that they were literally speechless.  Then, of course, we get the later additions to the ending, that make it seem tidier and nicely wrapped up, ending on a positive rather than fear/awe-struck—the “shorter ending” (added sometime after the 200s) says they told and then everyone told the whole world “the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.”  Does that sound like the rest of Mark?  It doesn’t to me, instead it makes me laugh.  J  The longer ending was added in the late 200s or early 300s, and even in the earliest manuscripts is marked as “secondary status”—it seems to be composed of elements from the other three gospels and even the beginning of Acts, perhaps as a way to wrap up the story in a way similar to what other communities were hearing.  It’s interesting to think about the communities that would have received these writings and heard them proclaimed in their worship gatherings—what did they remember?  What was most important?  What did they do after hearing the word? 

 

What did you notice as you read Mark, act 2?

photos are of kids who live in 1st century bc ruins (now in Jordan) and of the beginning of the Via Dolorosa, the way Jesus is thought to have walked from his sentencing, through Jerusalem, to his crucifixion out the other side.  both photos by TCP.

Bible in 90 Days: Day 31

BiND:  Day 31

 

More review today…I just want to highlight a couple of things in this recap of David and Solomon’s reign(s) (which the Chronicler wants to blend together in one big happy-days montage).

1. Judging from the number of people involved, worshiping God is a full time job for most of the nation.  I wonder what our lives would look like if we considered worship our full time job and had to figure out how to do other things in a spirit of worship?
2. In a time when we as a congregation are contemplating a building project, it’s interesting to read 1 Chronicles 29, about how everyone gave big offerings (of their own freewill, no less!) and, once again, just like in the Tabernacle story back in Exodus, there is more than enough to complete the project of building for God’s glory.  Today we would say we are building for God’s mission, but that doesn’t change the offering situation!  And then David’s prayer of gratitude and praise is amazing. I think I might start using it.
3. At the end of David’s prayer of gratitude in 1 Chr. 29, he turns to the people and says “Bless the Lord your God.”  This is the most common use of the imperative form of the word “bless” in the Hebrew Bible.  We in English tend to turn it around, ordering God to bless us, our endeavors, our nations, etc.  But in the Bible the people are the ones who are ordered to bless God.  It’s a little different mindset. How might it change the way we view God, ourselves, our endeavors, and our nations if we turned it around?
4. I love Solomon’s prayer in 2 Chr. 6 (a recap of his prayer in Kings) because he is so certain that people will sin (he even says, like Paul, “there is no one who does not sin.”) but he is even more certain that God’s love and forgiveness are bigger than the sins of people.  It’s there and all we have to do is notice!  What a great theological statement Solomon makes—very Reformed.  “There is no one who does not sin” but “there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant in steadfast love.”  This is, in essence, our theological tradition.  Though we interpret things slightly differently than he goes on to do (we believe that God’s love and forgiveness are given to us before we can even ask for it, whereas Solomon says “give it to them when they ask”—but as I said in the excursus on exile below, we have a slightly different (and less physical-literal) worldview so we know what it’s like to feel unforgiven because we haven’t asked for forgiveness, though we may be forgiven in actuality).
5. In 2 Chr. 7, that’s a lot of sheep.  (it’s probably hyperbole, a way to say:  it was a lot, and this was a really super important occasion!!!!  But still.  120,000?  wow.)

photo is of an arch reconstructed like one from Solomon’s Temple, on the site of the Temple.  by DDanzig, from Flickr.

 

sorry…

Hi friends,

Sorry I’m a little behind with the blogging–I promise to catch up as soon as I can.  I’m having my wisdom teeth out this morning, but I should be back blogging with you tomorrow or Thursday.

In the meantime, talk amongst yourselves….that King David!  :-)

peace,

Teri

 

PS–Richard will be teaching the class tomorrow night–a great time for hard questions!  ;-)