Of Loving Grace

A Series of Meditations on Religion, Art, & Music

[ultrajustjo]

Teacup Sermon: He is Risen!

Today, we celebrate something miraculous, something earth shattering. Today, we hear a message that didn't come with trumpets or fanfare. Today's message is so tremendous that it began with an earthquake! A messenger from God appeared in front of the open tomb to proclaim to us the message that God had planned all along -- Jesus Christ is risen! Death is overcome!

At Jesus's birth, the angels sang "Joy to the World," and they announced to meek and lowly shepherds, "Greetings! Do not be afraid." And now, at Easter, the angel tells the loyal women, "Do not be afraid." Jesus, alive in his crucified body, appears to the disciples and says, "Greetings! Do not be afraid!" Jesus Christ has been born for you, my friends. Jesus Christ died and has been raised from the dead. Our triune God has moved in this world to bring you Christ's peace today and for eternity.

Joy to the World! He is risen!

Let us pray: Holy God, you comfort us, you rescue us, you include us, and you care for us in all ways and forms. Today, on Resurrection Sunday, we remember with awe the power of your love to overcome sin and death. We praise you, Lord Jesus, and we pray in your name, Amen.

[ultrajustjo]

African and African American Spirituality in _Sinners_

With the awards ceremonies the last few weeks heavily favoring the film _Sinners_, I decided to share my paper on the film from my course, Black Church Studies 765, at Duke Divinity School in August 2025. Dr. Eric Williams led the class, and I had a great preceptor, too. You can find Dr. Williams here:

https://www.instagram.com/ericwilliamsphd?igsh=ZWh0ZGJkYWhqYTM1

My paper is a bit dry, but hang in there. If you're not really into vampire movies, try watching Sinners and stopping the film each time you recognize a historical or cultural reference -- you'll still see a great film, but the scary music will be less scary, and the visuals will be easier to handle. Apologies to the cast and crew for chopping up their art this way, but, really, by putting out such important work, they asked to be analyzed. Here we go!

Filmmaker Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a rich film that delves into conversion themes as characters face good and evil both within themselves and just outside the door. The film questions whether or not conversion to good or evil is possible, and challenges that question by exploring a veil – an ephemeral or cosmological space – between the two. The work also seamlessly allows themes from the course to perechoretically dance together as the plot unwinds, and it does so without drawing attention to or even naming themes like trauma, ancestral connection, mysticism, migration, music, transcendence, materiality, cosmology, and percussivity. Coogler accomplishes all of this while placing the theme of conversion within a framework of competing cosmologies.

Sinners is a film that I almost talked myself out of viewing because of the opinions of others. Sho Baraka in Christianity Today speculated about the horror aspects of the vampire film and the characters’ infidelity of spouses by implying that scenes would “make your marriage counselor blush,” while “upsawkward,” a Reddit poster on r/TrueFilm, expressed disappointment in Coogler’s treatment of original horror genre threads that Coogler left unresolved in the film. These two views notwithstanding, Sinners has achieved critical acclaim and international success, making $45 million on its opening weekend. As a now-mature latchkey kid who grew up accustomed to violence and sex in film due to access to cable television and video tapes, I wondered how much more compounded would be the provocative and spiritually shaken media of 2025 to meet the needs of an even more jaded modern audience. I nearly folded and chose a different film, but upsawkward’s disappointment need not have been mine, and besides – a fellow student urged the class to watch, saying, “The violence is the point.” In response to and out of respect for her comment, I viewed a film that neatly touched on a multitude of themes covered in Black Church Studies 765, (and seemed mild compared to both violence and sex depictions from the 1980s film industry).

Sinners was written, produced, and directed by Coogler and debuted in 2025. Coogler’s production company is Proximity Media, and distribution rights for Sinners were acquired by Warner Bros. Coogler’s previous film successes include Creed and the Marvel-based Black Panther films. Sinners deals with repercussions of the Depression-era South under Jim Crow laws within the horror genre of a vampire film. Twins “Smoke”/Elijah and “Stack”/Elias who are African American former US soldiers, return after seven years from Chicago’s gangster land to their hometown in Mississippi where they left a cousin, Sammie, and partners Anne and Mary. The brothers plan to capitalize on a juke joint, but the Ku Klux Klan and an Irish vampire interrupt their plans. The first two-thirds of the film is spent in character and plot development, and the final third descends into horror and vampire lore. The film, produced in Louisiana, received critical acclaim and has grossed $365 million since April 2025.

This film’s cinematic portrayals of plot and character development draw in a viewer. Coogler’s attention to historical details and the way he encompasses main themes found within African American spirituality practices makes this film optimum viewing at our course completion.

The twins seem to drive the plot (they are literally driving to and fro), but the various plot points come together to hinge on Sammie, the ultimate preacher’s kid who straddles the line between saved and sinner. Sammie sits, as a musician whose craft cosmically reaches across time, between the veils of life and death and good and evil, with Christian church music portrayed as life-giving good, and Blues music in juke joints portrayed as death-dealing bad, or with daylight “equality” portrayed as good, but with klan members hooded under a veil as bad. Sammie simultaneously sees through the “veil,” in the sense of having a double consciousness as described by WEB DuBois. Each of the main characters wrestles with this concept of double consciousness where they view themselves as others see them, but Coogler pulls the focus directly to Sammie. As my thesis, I contend that Sammie does not convert in an outward way, choosing neither good nor bad. He does not answer definitively either his preacher father’s call to conversion, nor Stack’s/Elias’s invitation to be immortally evil as a vampire. However, Sammie does attain theologian James Cone’s concept of “fellowship with God” as the “beginning and the end of human liberation” by performing his music and communing cosmically. Sammie finds liberation in his music. Figure 1, from the film, offers a visual description of my thesis that Sammie begins and ends unconverted. Figure 1 also represents the theme of mysticism described later:

Fig 1:

Scholar Luther E. Smith says, “Unless rooted in religious experience, the work of liberation and reconciliation will never realize its potential.” The characters in Sinners vacillate between seeking liberation and reconciliation and defining the values of religious experiences. Did Sammie have a religious experience? In the sense of a Christian conversion, we do not witness this type of experience; one could argue that his flashback to singing “This Little Light of Mine” in church combined with his final entrance into his father’s Christian church sandwich his trial by fire and water with the vampire, Remmick; this sandwich structure could imply that he was converted to Christianity overall. However, we do see Sammie traveling away from the church with the guitar his preacher father implored him to drop and forsake, and we witness his later Blues music career. A conversion to Christianity, due to religious experience, is not certain. Did he have a different type of religious experience, one that hearkened back to ancestral or pre-ancestral spirits and involved hoodoo and personal struggle? We do witness this experience in the film, and using Smith’s description, liberation and reconciliation could be accomplished by Sammie, depending on which interpretation of his experience you choose.

We see several instances of conversion beyond that discussed for Sammie. The murdered white woman-turned-vampire, Joan, sings a conversion song, “After we kill y’all, we’re gonna have heaven on earth.” This conversion song promises that, in evil, the sinners at the juke joint will have freedom from racism, poverty, and Christianity’s delayed heaven. Near the climax, we see Sammie being (anti-)baptized by Remmick, leader of the vampires, in the pond outside the mill in the dark of night in dark water. Remmick near drowns Sammie repeatedly and mocks the Lord’s Prayer. This scene contrasts with the church shown at the beginning and at the end of the long day in the film. The church is bright in daylight; it offers a choice of baptism into Christianity with entrance into the good and sin-free afterlife. This visual contrast brings to mind C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya’s concept of the value of the black sacred cosmos. They write, “No person can serve two masters” and “God wants you free.” For Sammie, “unfreedom” risks salvation. Sammie is struggling, caught between the world of Christianity and the world of demonic vampires. Coogler’s mastery in Sinners gives the lyrics to an old Spiritual a new facet: “Before I’ll be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave and go home to my father and be free.” Before Sammie could be a slave to Remmick’s vampirism, he was being buried in a water grave, hoping to be free.

Touch points on Coursework Themes

In the interest of space, I quickly note other points in the film that converse with our coursework. We see trauma as the character Delta Slim remembers his friend being lynched, referring to a singular event that was repeated so as to be a collective trauma. We see Anne and Smoke remember the death of their child. For the theme of migration/transmigration, we learn that Smoke and Stack went to Chicago for seven years, reminiscent of the Great Migration north in the 1920s. Seven is also a biblical number for completion, as of the space of a lifetime lost or reinvented. The theme of ancestral connectedness is seen as Smoke visits his papa’s grave site on which stones and bottles have been place. Anne performs a ritual for Smoke’s safety, incorporating non-Christian actions and beliefs likely indicating a connection to previous beliefs or ancestors.

In addition to trauma, migration, and connectedness, we see Coogler’s impressive use of music to convey themes of spirituality. Delta Slim intertwines this connectedness with the theme of music, saying, “blues [were] brought with us from home, not forced on us like religion.” He also said, “Music heals our people, and we be free.” Freedom is linked to conversion, as described above, and Coogler’s use of music as a conduit for freedom and Christian salvation, or for the entrance of evil and the tying of souls to the undead, is masterful. Coogler also uses music to interact with the theme of transcendence with the line, “My daddy told me, he said, ‘The devil is coming on account of my music.’ ” This connection, again, relates to a position between the veils of good and evil, where there is no conversion.

Materiality played a big role in the film, just as it does in African American spirituality. Scholar Tiya Miles writes, “Beyond the critical role of communicating information, things function as tokens and repositories, as staples in the fabric of time, as a means to effect psychological, emotional, and existential transport or to ‘convey viewers to another world or state of being.’” In Sinners, we see materiality in Smoke’s protective mojo bag, in the wooden pennies used to pay for drinks at the juke joint, and in the ways the twins used money. Sammie’s guitar plays a large role in Coogler’s film, pulling in alternate cosmologies into the materiality of the instrument. I argue that in the water scene, Sammie can be seen swinging the guitar like an axe to cut the “storm” – the evil Remmick – in two. This imagery shows the guitar slowing or ending the evil, which is a form of hoodoo described by Albert J. Raboteau in “Death of the Gods.” Swinging the wood to pierce a vampire could be a form of this, as well, although driving a wooden stake into a vampire’s heart is a conventional trope.

Sinners embraced the cosmologies of the Irish, Native Americans, and Africans, all of whom share a belief in evil spirits. Remmick, an Irish vampire, has the Lord’s Prayer memorized. Anne, already identified as outside of strict Christianity, performs a ritual, saying, “Soil of my soil, bone of my bone, blood of my blood, I bless you. Ashé.” Her ritual, like Christian rituals, uses the lighting of candles and the pouring of oil. We see Native American interaction with supernatural spirits in the scene with Joan who had invited Remmick into her home, having thereby given him permission to attack her. Coogler intertwines the cosmologies of the white Southerner with the Native Americans, who pray for Joan, saying, “God have mercy on your soul.” Coogler strikes a contrast between Christianity as understood by the characters, and a Christianity Remmick reinterprets. A cosmology with God in heaven, humans on earth, and the devil or demons below in hell is juxtaposed against a realm where all three are connected in all times and places.

Much of Sinners deals with the theme of transcendence, such as when Remmick drops into Mississippi from a different plane, and when musicians of different ethnicities and centuries sing and dance together during Sammie’s “I Lied to You” song. Delta Slim, who has lifted the veil in the past by escaping a vampire, sacrifices himself and transcends this side of life for the other. Using another movie-ending trope, Coogler has Smoke reach out to hold his deceased nursing baby as he transcends life for death. Perhaps the best example of this theme is that the characters help the victims (through use of the wooden stakes) to separate their souls from the bodies of the vampires and from the bodies of the KKK members (through Smoke’s First Blood imitation showdown). With Coogler’s obvious correlation between vampires and KKK members to demons, the two battle scenes released all souls to go where they would.

Transcendence is related to mysticism, and Coogler dips into this theme with Sammie, Delta Slim, Anne, and Smoke. Sammie is a mystic from beginning to end. We learn that Delta Slim had mystic tendencies with his previous vampire experience. Anne’s hoodoo knowledge makes her a mystic, and allows her to help the characters use garlic as a form of protection. These points are made obvious by Coogler, but the twinning of Smoke and Stack is more subtle. In touch with ancestral connectedness, the theme of mysticism sees twins as one soul in two bodies as a means of protection. Throughout the film, Coogler adds to the plot development with percussivity heard in a rattlesnake rattle, in the juke joint set up, in the blues with added guitar, then harmonica, in a field holler work song (“Raleigh Can’t Hold Me” sung by prisoners), and in Delta Slim’s painful retelling of his friend’s lynching. Delta Slim taps on the door and hums to cope with the memory. The final fight scene is permeated with rhythmic drumming through which spirituality is carried.

Note: this scene shows violence

Final notes related to a Christian theme that bear further analysis include: a. Black people were encouraged to serve the country in World War I, but they were segregated in the army and sent into the worst battle conditions; when they returned, they returned to Jim Crow, poverty, and Klan racism. Smoke is a soldier getting back at the Klan. b. Stack and Mary are either “haints,” as the dead are described by Anne, or saints, depending on which side of the veil they are on. Their names are significant in Christian cosmology as being prophetic servants of God. Coogler uses them in a manner opposed to Christianity as they invite the elder Sammie to go to the “bad” side. c. The Asian character, Grace, is aptly named, as she saves the town by forcing a showdown out at the juke joint. Her death was different than the others – we see her burning like imagery of the burning bush, with fire consuming an evil other as she is consumed.

A basic Christian interpretation of Sinners could settle on the idea that what you open your heart to, you invite in. The characters in the film opened their hearts to sin in the forms of licentiousness, greed, murder, theft, and adultery, and by doing so, they first invited in the king of sin, and then died of their sins. Yes, they died and they were all sinners, but did they not deserve redemption? The characters received redemption from the evil – a conversion – when their souls became separated from the demons in their bodies. Sammie, however, remains in the middle, neither on the side of good nor evil, heaven nor hell, and he chooses to remain a mystic between the veil. He attains “fellowship with God,” and attains social and spiritual liberation.

Citations: Baraka, Sho. May 14, 2025. “ ‘Sinners’ and the Panic-Praise Problem,” Christianity Today https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/05/sinners-review-ryan-coogler/ Braxton, Greg. April 20, 2025. The Los Angeles Times. https://www.aol.com/sinners-receives-heavenly-reception-during-161049357.html Accessed Aug. 4, 2025. Coogler, Ryan. 2025. Sinners. Proximity Media DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk, ed. Herbert Aptheker. Milwood, NY: Kraus-Thomspon Organization, 1973. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twins_in_mythology Hurston, Zora Neale. 1981. “Shouting,” in The Sanctified Church, Berkeley, CA: Marlowe & Company, 137 pages Kugler, Michael. June 25, 2025. “Sinners: Vampires, Blood, and the Conquest of Death,” https://reformedjournal.com/2025/06/25/sinners/ Accessed Aug. 4, 2025 Miles, Tiya. 2021. All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family Keepsake https://lithub.com/how-the-survivors-of-slavery-used-material-objects-to-preserve-intergenerational-wisdom/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Lit%20Hub%20Daily%3A%20June%2010%2C%202021&utm_term=lithub_master_list&fbclid=IwAR0X4SFhD0BtU9Cv28IoibGx_Ixz2JM5nWd6vJnnSmUf10k_NnaGAycQY24 Accessed on Aug. 4, 2025. Noel, James A. and M. V. Johnson, 2005. “Psychological Trauma, Christ’s Passion, and the African American Faith Tradition,” Pastoral Psychology. Vol 3, No. 4. Lincoln, C. Eric and Lawrence H. Mamiya. "The Religious Dimension: 'The Black Sacred Cosmos'." pp 32-37. Raboteau, Albert. "Death of the Gods," in African American Religious Thought: An Anthology, ed. Cornel West, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003 Upsawkward, July 2025. https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueFilm/comments/1m8uibx/i_kind_of_felt_betrayed_by_sinners_2025_and_am/ Accessed on Aug. 1, 2025 Walker, Noland. 2003. “This Far By Faith,” PBS, shown in Lecture, Duke Divinity School, May 21, 2025. Williams, Eric. May 2025. Lecture at Duke Divinity School. Williams, Chad. Feb. 19, 2018. W. E. B. Du Bois, World War I, and the Question of Failure https://www.aaihs.org/w-e-b-du-bois-world-war-i-and-the-question-of-failure/#:~:text=He%20vocally%20encouraged%20Black%20participation,a%20patriotic%20American%2C%E2%80%9D%20Du%20Bois Accessed on Aug. 4, 2025.

[ultrajustjo]

A Cowboy's Last Ride

Lester Ervin Prout, Jr. Passed from this life at age 86.

My dad died last week, three years after my mother. He passed on what would have been their 55th wedding anniversary.

Over his lifetime, he was very human. Most people at his funeral knew his past, but some did not. I prayed for guidance from the Spirit and wrote a eulogy so that, if no one else would stand, we would have a family representative speak. I planned to defer to another relative, but at the last minute, that relative chose not to stand. Understandable. It was a hard day, and a difficult situation. How do you speak the truth without speaking truth? When the time came to step forward, I looked first to the other, who shook his head. Then I stepped forward. But first, a song for my dad that was played at his funeral -- a song that he loved, that he tried to emulate, and that captured the essence of his attitudes and dreams. This beautiful old song of his joy became a haunting dirge. My father will no longer sing on this side.

My father was 11 when this came out. We were going to play "El Paso" by Marty Robbins, too, but this one was the only song we did. No hymns. No "Amazing Grace." The music was fitting. The service was complete. His life here is complete.

Eulogy for a father

Today’s lectionary reading is from Ps 11: 4-5 (NET, edited):

“4. The Lord is in God’s holy temple;

the Lord’s throne is in heaven.

[God’s] eyes watch;

[God’s] eyes examine all people.

5. The Lord approves of the godly,

but [God] hates… wickedness and those who love to do violence.”

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

[I was comfortable reading the word according to my own professed denomination's liturgical manner, but no one else understood or participated in the response. My solo voice surprised me, but I'm not sure why. My father would have thought it was funny, as I did. He would have responded, having been raised a Methodist.]

My father was not a perfect man, but he taught us how to read the Bible to ourselves, with the old leather in our palms, turning page by blessed page.

My father was not a perfect man, but he modeled compassion and generosity by volunteering our family to cook soup and cornbread for church meals.

My father was not perfect, but he joyfully sang with the car radio, and along with musicals on TV, and at any party when asked to sing, “O McGinty was dead, and McCarthy didn’t know it,” which he probably learned at Boy Scout camp to the tune of “Irish Washerwoman.” I used to cringe whenever the party would come to time for songs. The longer he held the first note, staring at me or laughing at the crowd, the more I shrank. I couldn’t stand it! So, I’m going to sing it, and if you know it, join me. If you don’t, imagine you’re 12 years old and your dad’s singing to 40 people:

“OOOOOoooo, McGinty was dead and McCarthy didn’t know it. McCarthy was dead and McGinty didn’t know it. The both of them dead, and in the same bed, and neither one knew that the other was dead.”

I hope the irony of this song about dead Irishmen is not lost on you. He burned this song into my brain, so here we are.

My father was not perfect, but he was exuberant! He loved a new project, whether it was a craft, a skill, or plans to travel to a new place. He passed that on to me, along with his crooked smile.

There are other memories, too, but my father was not a perfect man.

He wasn’t a perfect husband, but he loved deeply and strongly.

His first marriage contained much joy but also much imperfection. He was blessed to become a father to four beautiful boys who deserved so very much.

He married again, in a union lasting 52 years. The bond between him and my mom was wonderful, tragic, inspiring, and predictable. It ebbed and flowed, like a living love, until she died. And then, he cried.

Their two incredible daughters received a more experienced father than the beautiful boys did - yet, still, he was imperfect.

Throughout his life, he tried to be a good sibling; he tried harder to be a good son. He loved and honored his parents. He loved his family of growing kids and grandkids and great grandkids, yet -- living in the Light was a struggle.

He knew that the gospel of Jesus Christ was not for perfect people, but fallible, very human people. People who fell, got up, and tried, again. Over, and over.

My dad knew that God approves of those who follow Jesus, which my dad did -- we read our Bibles, and we served the soup to those who were hungry for community. He knew that God despises wickedness and violence -- my dad was aware of his own humanity. He knew that God’s eyes watch, that God examines all people -- in his quiet moments, he knew he could not hide. My dad knew that the LORD is in God’s holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven.

My parents trusted the Word of God. They trusted in the grace and redemption promised to imperfect - but forgiven - believers through the person of Jesus Christ.

So should we all.

May he rest in Christ’s peace.

Songs to say Farewell

My dad would sing anything, but he liked country gold, his Western music, and songs from his 1950s teeny bop years. I remember him enjoying singing and listening to these songs:

This was my parents' song:

Here they are in one of my favorite pictures, and theirs, too.

[ultrajustjo]

Pain, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation:

Hosea and Luke speak against hunger in Gaza

Kyrie Eleison: https://youtu.be/Oeru8rxQLAM?feature=shared

The message:

It's July! It's time for summer camp! All week, I saw pictures on social media of little campers settling into their spots at Camp Fowler. The thruway was crowded with RVs and jam-packed cars heading to the Catskills and the Adirondacks. They're all preparing to sleep in tents or small cabins. Have you ever been camping? Imagine the creaks and groans of the unfamiliar cabin, or the rubbing of the tent canvas against the poles. When it gets dark, it can be frightening. You can't see out well, and you feel closed in. It can be cozy, but you don't want to open the tent, or the RV home, or the safety of the cabin door, not even to a friend. Darkness and creatures are outside. We imagine the bears, coyotes, and skunks, but someone comes to your tent with a flashlight and says they really need you to walk them to the latrine. If you open the door, you have to extend hospitality by accompanying them -- you have to put on shoes, grab the flashlight and a windbreaker, maybe some pepper spray, lock the door behind you, all so you can offer a service to that person.

This week, people in Gaza are living in tents. This week, Gaza is out of food. There is no flour even to make a flat bread with water. They are drinking water with small amounts of salt to keep themselves alive, living in refugee tents that squeak and do not hide the terror outside. "Pope Leo XIV last Sunday, mourned the deaths of three people sheltering at the Holy Family church in Gaza City...[the Pope called] for an "immediate halt to the barbarity" in Gaza."(npr, July 20, 2025). Why am I talking about the Pope -- we aren't Roman Catholic, we're Reformed Church in America! Pope Leo is a world leader who leads millions upon millions of Christians. He speaks for us. I ask you, "Where is the hospitality for Gaza?"

Nearly 100 people killed seeking aid in Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian officials say

Dozens of Palestinians were killed across Gaza on Sunday as they tried to get food aid, according to local health authorities, one of the de

In God's wisdom, we receive the gospel scripture today where we thank God for the food that is given to us, our daily loaves. We learn from Jesus that we need only knock at God's door, and what we need will be given to us. Ask, and we will receive God's help and wisdom. There is no famine in Gaza. Physical need exists because resources are fought over instead of shared. We need God's help and wisdom to release resources to help those in need. Today the need is in Gaza, but long ago it was the friend at the door in Jesus's story, and tomorrow it could be us. Today, for some in our community, it is also a day of need and hunger.

Knock, seek, ask, and the door will be opened to us, just as we open the tent door to others. Friends, let us ask God for the strength to help others, to flip the tables, to walk the rejected children to Jesus, to be vocal about the lack in this world, and to speak out against tyranny and idolatry which are abundant today. Paul spoke to the Colossians to help them face similar problems. Paul urged them to build themselves up in Christ and to be strengthened by faith. Col.2:8 says "Watch out that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles of the world, and not according to Christ." The ideas that stand out to me here are "do not be held captive by empty deceit and worldly philosophies." These things are not of Christ, and not from God. Paul says we are alive in Christ, in whom God dwells, and God is above all earthly authority. Pauls tells them, and us, to hold fast to Jesus, who is the head of the church. If we, alive in Christ, hold fast to Christ, the rest of the church body will grow and be strong. We today are part of that body of Christ, and so are the people in Gaza. We must not hold onto human ideologies and human deceit that allow idolatry and tyranny to flourish, but we must hold onto Jesus Christ, who fed the 5,000, who welcomed the children, and who forgave those who wronged him. If we are alive in Christ, we must hold to Christ's teachings. What services can we offer? What hospitality? What forgiveness?

Our world, local and global, is full of broken covenants that need redirection and forgiveness. In our Old Testament reading, God was fed up with broken covenants, with the evils that Biblical Israel had committeed. God told Hosea to marry a sex worker as a symbol of Israel's infidelity in keeping its contract with God. God told Hosea to name his first child Jezreel, which in Hebrew sounds very similar to the pronunciation of Israel, whom God would no longer support because of its bloody history. God told Hosea to name the next child Lo-ruhamah, which mimics the Hebrew words for "no pity." God told Hosea to name a third child Lo-ammi, which translates in Hebrew to "not my people." Hosea's tale uses a metaphor of a marriage covenant gone bad in order to represent how badly Biblical Israel has broken away from God. First, there was a withdrawal of the covenant, then a w/d of pity, and finally a w/d of protection, all brought on by Biblical Israel's unrepentant actions. But, you all know God. You know that God loves and that God forgives. By the end of our reading, there is a note of hope, of reconciliation with God. But first, God sent Hosea to call out the failures of God's people.

The way Hosea the prophet spoke to Biblical Israel is the way we want Hosea to speak to current Israel, to billionaires, and to those of us who exercise undue power over others even in tiny, tiny ways. We are all guilty of putting self first. When we as a body of force put self first, evil happens and broken covenants are thrown out. We are being called out and we must repent before we can be reconciled.

Jesus affirms this reconciliation. We have more marriage covenant imagery with the person of Jesus Christ, who is the bridegroom of the church body. Jesus, who is God incarnate, has entered a new contract with us. In our gospel lesson today, Jesus, as mediator between us and God, teaches the disciples how to pray, and reinforces the teaching with a story. Knock. Seek. Ask. What God wants you to have, God will answer, and in God's time. What God hears in your request, God will have pity for, and God will have love for you. Jesus teaches us to keep turning to God.

Let's learn the "wordless prayer":

Rev. John Stevens, an ELCA pastor (We have a formula of agreement with ELCA - yay!), offered the wordless camp prayer, which is useful for large groups of campers: God, food, thanks. Arms up, rub your belly, clap your hands. You're all my campers! Let's do it together. (We practiced several times with prompts, and then we did it wordlessly. It was glorious! Here is Rev. Stevens. The prayer is at 3:10-4:00.)

Today, we who are not billionaires or political professionals cannot make the evil starvation of Gaza end. We cannot alter policies that distribute resources there or right in our own community. We who are alive in Christ, the head of the church, can turn to God, with our arms up, and pray for the children in Coxsackie and Ravena and Athens and Earlton who have hungry bellies today. We lift our weak arms up and pray that God will send good people to do the work that evil wants destroyed. We ask God to place healing on the hearts of the world as we look toward Gaza. And we ask for forgiveness. We ask for forgiveness for ourselves in our weaknesses, for forgiveness for those in power over us, and we ask for forgiveness for those harming others, the way Christ taught us.

We know there is evil in the world. Evil had God in its midst and chose to hang Jesus on a tree. But we know what happened next. We know the end of this story. God triumphs. Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended to Heaven, as will we, the members of the body of Christ. Evil does not win. Pain does not endure. Love conquers all. Until then, we love as much as we can, we speak against injustice, and we feed those we can feed. When we say the Lord's prayer later, I want us to meditate on the words, "give us this day our daily bread." Let us offer up to God our prayer that a hungry child may have our portion.

Before we close in prayer, we were to read the Belhar Confession together. In error, the confession was left out of the bulletin, but I will read a section for you. Find it at www.rca.org. The Belhar Confession is one of only four statements of belief expressed by the Reformed Church in America. It was written in 1982 in response to the Dutch Church's stance on apartheid in South Africa, but was adopted by the RCA in 2009 as being universally applicable.

The Belhar Confession

The Belhar Confession

Today, I will read sections 4 and 5 to you. I invite you to pull it up on your device now and follow along, or to go home and read the whole statement. I substitute "Godself" for "himself."

"4. We believe

that God has revealed himself as the one who wishes to bring about justice and true peace among people;

that God, in a world full of injustice and enmity, is in a special way the God of the destitute, the poor and the wronged;

that God calls the church to follow him in this, for God brings justice to the oppressed and gives bread to the hungry;

that God frees the prisoner and restores sight to the blind;

that God supports the downtrodden, protects the stranger, helps orphans and widows and blocks the path of the ungodly;

that for God pure and undefiled religion is to visit the orphans and the widows in their suffering;

that God wishes to teach the church to do what is good and to seek the right (Deut. 32:4; Luke 2:14; John 14:27; Eph. 2:14; Isa. 1:16-17; James 1:27; James 5:1-6; Luke 1:46-55; Luke 6:20-26; Luke 7:22; Luke 16:19-31; Ps. 146; Luke 4:16-19; Rom. 6:13-18; Amos 5);

that the church must therefore stand by people in any form of suffering and need, which implies, among other things, that the church must witness against and strive against any form of injustice, so that justice may roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream;

that the church as the possession of God must stand where the Lord stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged; that in following Christ the church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others.

Therefore, we reject any ideology

which would legitimate forms of injustice and any doctrine which is unwilling to resist such an ideology in the name of the gospel.

5. We believe

that, in obedience to Jesus Christ, its only head, the church is called to confess and to do all these things, even though the authorities and human laws might forbid them and punishment and suffering be the consequence (Eph. 4:15-16; Acts 5:29-33; 1 Peter 2:18-25; 1 Peter 3:15-18).

Jesus is Lord.

To the one and only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be the honor and the glory for ever and ever."

Let us pray:

Almighty God who dwells in us and among us as head of our body of faith, we pray today for happy campers that they grow in positive, loving ways and have good experiences. We pray today for families forced to camp in refugee tents that they find resources shared with them and the love of the world church. We call down your justice upon their oppressors, and acknowledge that we also fail in upholding your justice. Forgive us. Love us. Help us to be your hands and voice among the people. We pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, Amen.

[Immediately before our sermon today, we sang the hymn "Let Your Heart Be Broken." Our organist opened the hymnal earlier in the week, and the pages fell open to this beautiful, heartfelt hymn. It summarized my sermon perfectly, yet we had not coordinated its use. God's hand was at work with us this week, as always.]

https://youtu.be/mAMFVABMrG4?feature=shared

Go in peace.

XX

[ultrajustjo]

Of Loving Grace

Culture, Spirit, and Community Love

We held a Protestant quinceañera service this month for our darling quinceañera. The ritual is becoming more commonplace in the northern US, as many move up from south of the border. Many are also diverging from the Catholic Mass. Protestants need guidance for the cultural continuation of a social and religious celebration that has origins in Catholicism.

We appreciate our church family celebrating with us, and our pastor honoring our request to explore this church service with us. The original program was created by our previous pastor six years before for our firstborn daughter, and our current pastor altered it only slightly. We thank them both for pioneering a confirmation-style worship service for a family that is one generation removed from Mass. What was the purpose of a service that offered no sacrament? Praise. Love. Thankfulness. Recognition of a Triune God who brought us together in the past, sits with us in the present, and promises to be with us in our futures.

We gathered together to praise God and thank God for our daughter, who wore a crown representing her ongoing relationship with, and our recognition of, Christ the King, our sibling and savior. Together with our church family and dear friends and family who gathered from across the country, we prayed, praised, read the Word, and sang hymns before finishing the day with a party. We ask the Spirit to guide us, always.

Below is the program we used. I offer it here for others to use as a model, as we also sought models for Protestant services:

Saturday, May 11th, 2024

Organ Prelude

Processional: Quinceañera and Damas

Welcome

Responsive Call to Worship: Psalm 139:1-18, 23-24 See Bulletin Insert (reproduced below)

Salutation and Prayer

Hymn of Praise No. 64 (Green Hymnal) “All Creatures of Our God and King”

Ritual of Friendship

The Law of God

Gloria Patri

Hymn No. 395 (Green Hymnal) “Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord”

Gospel Lesson: Luke 1:26-56, 2:41-51

Homily: “Was Calvin’s Mother Mary?”

Recognition of Sponsors

Testimony of Quinceañera

Prayer of Blessing

Presentation of The Tiara

Closing Prayer

Hymn No. 435 (Green Hymnal)

“What a Friend We Have in Jesus”

Benediction

Responsive Call to Worship:

Leader: You have searched me, Lord,

and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

People: You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

L: Before a word is on my tongue

you, Lord, know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

P: Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

L: Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

P: If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

L: If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

P: For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

L: My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

P: Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

L: How precious to me are your thoughts, God!

How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of sand—

when I awake, I am still with you.

P: Search me, God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

[ultrajustjo]

Of Loving Grace

The Examen Series Finale

My deep dive into giving the Ignatian Examen prayer one more try was, well, a flop regarding the stated goal of deepening my connection with God. I had to make a statement for my learning covenant, and I chose that one. We were pretty tight already, so my final thoughts on keeping the practice for myself are "meh." However, I can now offer this practice to any who are seeking a new way of praying, so I'm grateful for the newfound familiarity.

On the other hand,

I morphed this practice into music. While I did maintain the covenant by faithfully engaging in this practice daily, I didn't want to end this term without creating a project related to the Examen experience. You can see and hear my music here

and here

and here:

Lead_Me_Home_(Examen_Prayer)

Download and print in PDF or MIDI free sheet music for Piano, Vocals (Piano-Voice)

You may use the music as you read the lyrics to pray. You may freely use the music in worship, either by streaming the accompaniment or by downloading the sheet music.

[ultrajustjo]

Of Loving Grace

Here is the final sermon in the mini-series on covenants with God; youth sermon, readings, sermon, and prayer.

Youth

So, surprise! Not every word is written out for this one! You can read mine and jump off into your own meditation. You could also purchase the same curriculum I'm using. It's great, it follows the Revised Common Lectionary, and it is available for all church sizes and budgets. I'm a fan. But you can just take inspiration from these pictures, if a full-blown curriculum is not on your radar today.

Second Sunday of Lent, February 25, 2024

If you have time, you can add this four-part meditation.

Scripture

First Reading Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. 2And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” 3Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 5No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 6I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”

15God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Second Reading, Paul’s letter to the Romans 4:13-25

13For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

16For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) — the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” 19He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 23Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, 24but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

Faith (1864)

Freeman Gage Delamotte (English, 1813–1862)

Our Gospel reading from Mark 8:31-38

31Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

34He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Sermon

Today is the second Sunday in Lent. I will remind you that Sunday’s are little Easters because every Sunday we celebrate the risen Christ, so Sundays are not part of the 40 days of Lent. As an aside, that is why some Christian churches do not celebrate Easter or Resurrection Sunday as a holiday because we do celebrate the risen Christ every time we worship together. Today, on our sabbath day that we are keeping holy, we praise God for our mediator, the risen Christ. So, today, Sunday, not Lent.

But, for the rest of the week according to our church calendar, we are journeying with Christ on his way to the cross. This is a solemn time for reflection. On that journey, we are reminding ourselves of why and how we are part of God’s people, so that, come Easter Sunday, we can truly understand how you and I are personally involved and able to proclaim “He is risen!”

Last week, most of us read about the first covenant between God and God’s people, as we heard the story of Noah after the great flood. I served in Glenmont last week and I’m pretty sure they were sick of me saying the word “covenant.” I really hammered it home. We read that God placed the rainbow in the vast sky facing away from the people and we can see that symbol as God’s self-limiting protection of Creation, which includes us (imagine an archer’s bow pulled back to shoot). The focus of this first covenant was the fullness of creation -- all creatures in the world are in a contractual agreement under God’s protection.

Charles Willson Peale: Noah and his ark / WikimediaCommons

In our reading from Genesis today, we read of the second great covenant between God and God’s people, shown here in God’s promise to Abram that his family line would extend to many nations -- a symbol of great blessings. Our reading skipped over the physical sign of the covenant -- circumcision of males, which was a sign that covered all people in the household, male and female, and pointed to the promise of fruitfulness and blessing. Our reading today did include the name changes of Abram to Abraham and from Sarai to Sarah. The new names mark the passage from a previous state to a new, covenantal state. In today’s terms, we understand the changing of names in the context of married couples who change their name to signify their new life and the agreement they have made to live as one family, or in the context of our trans siblings who change their names in order to step into a more comfortable personal space. Sometimes, we even change our names from a childhood calling to a more “adult” name, such as when Robbie becomes Robert, and Sissy becomes Cecelia. We understand the symbolism of a name change -- it isn’t random, and it has deep meaning.

Let’s recap a little bit: so far on this Lenten journey to the cross, we’ve been reminded that God promised to protect creation. This protection means that all of creation was not only pronounced good, but it was pronounced saveable and worthy of continuation. The world, and God’s creation which includes humanity, will continue.

We’ve also been reminded that God promised that we will thrive as we stay in covenant with our Creator. Remember, “covenant” implies a contract with more than one party. God is in covenant with us, not over us or separate from us. We are in relationship with God. God is with us. Emmanuel, right? It was just two months ago that we were singing that!

So, creation will continue, and God is with us. These promises are given in a two-party relationship of faith. This leads us right into today’s New Testament reading from Romans 4:13-16:

“13For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void....

16For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham.”

Paul reminds us that Abraham’s faith in God’s promises was not just for himself, but for us, his heirs in faith. In faith, the promise of God is not void. In faith, the promise of God rests on Grace, and God’s grace is revealed to us through Jesus Christ.

Our gospel reading today shows Jesus really putting his disciples to the test. They know the story of Noah. They know about Abraham. And they know, from the very mouth of Jesus, about God’s true call to faith. They have been showing love to all they meet, feeding thousands, healing the sick, listening to the outcasts, and studying the law of God through the direct teachings of the Messiah.

At this point in Mark’s gospel, Jesus is probably tired. He issues his rebuke to Peter to “Get behind me, Satan” -- to stop with the platitudes. Jesus doesn’t want Peter’s “thoughts and prayers,” his distracted and ineffectual dismissal of what Jesus is saying. Jesus wants Peter, and us, to focus on the deeper, divine meaning behind his words. Jesus wants Peter, and us, to listen as Jesus describes the new covenantal state we will enter with God after Jesus suffers, is rejected, killed, and rises again on the third day.

Jesus foretells his own manner of death as he tells the crowd to take up their crosses and follow him. We think, “Oh, Christianity, crosses -- there’s a nice piece of architecture or there’s a nice necklace. What a lovely cross.” Crosses were known to the crowds listening to Jesus. Crosses were a Roman instrument of torture. Torture was everyday life and you didn’t want a cross. But Jesus willingly walked that path, and he told them, if they would only listen, that a path that includes faithfulness to the promises of God also includes witness to Jesus’s return “in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Our lessons today from the scriptures teach us that God promises us continuation, faithfulness, and justification through unfathomable grace that saves us in Heaven. We’ll end here with this: Paul says this to us in Romans, that God’s promises “It will be credited, or our text said “reckoned,” to us who believe in the One who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.” We are in covenant with God, because we believe.

Let us Pray:

O God, grant that we may stand in your grace. Grant that the light of your grace may come to us through your Word. Keep us firm in faith until the promised time when your redemption shall come to all. We sometimes ask if we can bear the hard times in our lives. We call on your promises to steady us. Help us to listen to your Word. Help us to turn to you, the One who knows the hour when we may see the promised day. In the name of our sibling and our mediator, Jesus Christ, Amen.

[ultrajustjo]

Of Loving Grace

Word of the day: Covenant

I am deviating from my exploration of visual and aural art to share this sermon mini-series -- a dive into the art of preaching. What follows is a youth sermon, the readings, and a sermon and prayer for the first Sunday of Lent.

Youth

[Before beginning, I distributed shakers and bells to the youth. Unfortunately, that day only adults attended, so I walked among them and asked for volunteer children. I found many! Adults without shakers or bells were invited to use jazz hands or to use ASL for “excited!” or “yay!” when I said the word “Alleluiah.”]

Welcome friends. Brr, it’s cold out today. Can you tell me what season we are in? Winter! Winter will end next month, but we are definitely in the middle of winter right now. We know all four season? Fall, spring, summer, winter. Do you have a favorite, or do you like them all?

Most Christians around the world also follow a church calendar which has different seasons. The church seasons are Advent before Christmas, then Christmas season, after that we have ordinary time, Lent, Easter season, and then ordinary time, again, in the summer. This last Wednesday, we entered the season of Lent. It’s kind of a sad and quiet season because we are preparing our hearts to think about how Jesus died before he came back from the dead. When someone dies, it is sad and we do miss them. But, we have hope that the sad time does not last forever and that we will live with God. The reason we have that hope is because of Easter! On Easter, we celebrate Jesus rising from the dead! Not only did he die then come back, Jesus kept teaching us about God, and now he still lives at the right hand of God. Easter is a happy time for the church! We say Alleluiah! (shake bells)

Here is a quick fact: Sundays are not part of the quiet season of Lent. On Sundays, we all come together to celebrate that Jesus, God’s son, was alive after he died and sits at the right hand of God. That makes each Sunday a little Easter. Today, like every Sunday, is a celebration! Even though the rest of the week is in the church season of Lent, today is the day we come together to thank God for loving us, and for sending Jesus to teach us about that love. And we all say, “Alleluia!” (shake bells)

Let’s pray together: Dear God (Dear God), thank you for loving us. Thank you for loving us when we’re sad. Thank you for sending Jesus to teach us. Amen.

Scripture for Feb. 18, 2024

First Reading Genesis 9:8-17

8Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. 11I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

License: CC0 Public Domain

Anna Langova has released this “Rainbow” image under Public Domain license. It means that you can use and modify it for your personal and commercial projects.

Second Reading 1 Peter 3:18-22

18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water.

21And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you — not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Baptism of Christ, Ethiopian Biblical Manuscript (20th Century) - Public Domain Orthodox Painting - Shalone Cason

Shalone Cason, January 7, 2023

Gospel of Mark 1:9-15

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

14Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

©tonktiti at stock.adobe.com

Sermon

This week’s readings contain a lot of symbolism, don’t they? We have rainbows, water that washes away sinners in the flood, water that washes away our sins in baptism being demonstrated by the baptism of Jesus who was sinless, and we have wild beasts in the wilderness. We also see convenental language, and by that I mean words and phrases for each symbol that signal to us a contractual relationship. These symbols really drive home an understanding of God’s connection with us, and God’s promises for us.

These readings are right up my alley. Thanks for asking me to be here today! This is a great week for me, and I hope, for you! (Woo!)

Does that sound odd, in the beginning of Lent, to be celebrating? We did talk earlier about how Sundays are Little Easters within the Lenten season. I would say that the solemn season of Lent moves us toward the celebration of resurrection and God’s ultimate covenant, and for that we can be excited!

Last Sunday, many of us read about the transfiguration on the mountain, where the radiance of Jesus nearly blinds James and Peter while they are surrounded by the cloud from which they hear the voice of God the Father.

This week, we read about the arch of light -- the rainbow-- that is set by God within the clouds in the vast sky, a symbol so large that Noah’s vision is filled with a sign he and God can see.

Friends, God’s magnificence radiates to us and we can’t miss it. God’s majesty reaches us in the clouds, in the light, on the mountains, in all of creation, in times when we are terrified of what we witness, and in times of storms that seem unending. God entered into relationship with creation and chose to limit God’s divine and majestic power to be in relationship with us. We see God choosing to limit divine power in 2 of our readings; in the covenant promise of the rainbow and in the presence of Jesus Christ who comes to us in a limited human body - a body that now walks through Lent toward the cross.

Let’s look at this symbolism a bit more. I want to share with you a Sunday School story for today that I’ve borrowed from Feasting on the Word curriculum in 2017. The story is called, “Rainbow People.”

“One day, a young mother was taking a walk with her small son and they saw a rainbow. The four-year-old boy looked up in wonder and said, ‘Mommy, can we take that home and put it in our house?’ His awestruck question prompted the mother to write a poem she titled, ‘A Rainbow in My House.’ She took her son’s question literally, imagining what it would be like to have a rainbow in their house, on their walls, emanating from the windows and doors, coming out the chimney. The house was transformed, and it could not contain the glory of the rainbow and its colors.”

We can’t miss it, we can’t avoid it. God’s covenant with Noah and with us radiates into every part of creation, including into us, into our very being.

What does that mean for you and me? Take that question home and wrestle with it if you need to, but don’t dismiss it. What does it mean for you, for your life and your mental health and for your inner soul, that God’s promises and God’s being radiates through creation and includes you?

Maybe you don't want to meditate on that -- some of us need to have it laid out for us. Just give it to me straight - level with me, Doc. You know what I mean? For those of you who want a straightforward answer, here it is: You are wonderful.

Yep. Even if you yelled at your kids or your dog this morning, and even if you had a bad shift at work, or if you flipped someone the bird on the road this week, or if you are watching on zoom from a prison cell. You, my friends, are part of creation. God has made a covenant with you and placed his open bow facing away from you and all parts of the earth so that you will be protected.

Scholar Dianne Bergant, in Exegetical Perspective, writes that the flood narrative is a story of deliverance and of relationship with God. The covenant is made with all of creation. Bergant’s word, “deliverance,” signals for us protective language.

The symbol of the rainbow in this story signifies the first covenant between God and God’s people. Our call to worship today was taken from Psalm 25 which refers to another covenant between God and God’s people, when the people left Egypt to follow the path God set them on. God’s promises continue and are everlasting, from generation to generation.

I will continue this look at why you are wonderful, and how God is faithful to God’s covenants, but first, let’s move quickly to Mark. Our gospel shows that, in Jesus’s baptism, Jesus willingly enters the “renewal movement” (Oxford Bible, p. 1793) begun by John to prepare God’s people for Jesus’s presence. At the end of our reading today in verse 15, Jesus proclaims the Good News of God and asks the people to turn to God and believe. In our reading, the word used is “repent,” but that’s what repent means, to turn. It doesn’t mean to embroil yourself in agony and guilt, and to then beg for mercy. That seems to be a common, modern understanding of the word. Actually, repent means to re-align yourself, to turn to God whose mercies are new every morning (does that sound familar? It’s a verse from the Old Testament in Lamentations).

Jesus, as the good news himself, has come to remind us of God’s covenants. We are to remember that God made a promise to us in a covenental way -- like a contract with two parties - God and creation, including us. Jesus says that the time is fulfilled and that the kingdom of God is near.

We see more protective language in our gospel reading, but we have to look a little harder. In Mark, we see that Jesus is pushed to the wilderness, i.e. away from God our protector, and is tested with struggles and dangers like Satan and wild beasts. The language of Mark here refers us back to Psalm 7 and Psalm 91, prayers of the people seeking God’s protection from evils represented by wild animals. Jesus, according to Mark, personally acts out the Psalms by leaving God’s refuge, wrestling with temptations, and being cared for by angels from God. God’s covenant is great. God does not leave us to struggle alone.

That is why I declare to you, friends, that you are wonderful, because you are created by God, in covenant with God, and protected by God. You are invited to keep turning to God through this season of Lent and your season of life, preparing your heart not just for the wonder of divine love, but for the celebration of our eternal salvation through Christ.

Friends, Dr. Maya Angelou once recalled the people who had shown her kindness. She said, “I've had so many rainbows in my clouds." That, my friends, is a sign of God’s radiance. Kindness is one way that we can share the hope of the cross. Let us go forth today, trusting in the rainbows, and being rainbows to others, knowing that Jesus Christ is there before us, having led the way and having wrestled with - and beaten - all temptations, We go forth trusting that we are God’s covenant people. We remember that verse from Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; God’s mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Our Prayer for blessing:

Almighty God,

Grant that the words we have heard this day may, through your grace, both honor and praise you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[ultrajustjo]

Of Loving Grace

Anabaptism, evangelical white women, and Amish novels: how history and fiction affect our neighbors and ourselves

The arts I'm examining this week are film and written fiction, and how they play together to illuminate harm and to reflect changed experiences.

This week, I caught part of a docu-video on Mary Byler, a woman who shares her trauma from living Amish in the United States in the late 20th/early 21st century. You can view it at the link below. I was curious enough about her story to find her public socials. Recently, Ms. Byler hosted several ex-Amish or Amish-related women for a discussion on the harm they say is done by the publishing industry on the psyches of Amish women and how they are perceived in American culture. You probably already have a stereotyped caricature in your mind of an Amish woman right now: demure, happy without electric power or personal agency, part of a loving community. Unless...you live near an Amish community and shop at Walmart with your Amish neighbors. If you've stood in line after work with an Amish neighbor, you might have a different mental image, particularly as there are 50 states with Amish communities and the Amish population is growing, according to both Wikipedia and Lancaster Online. If you hold that caricature in your mind, it's probably time to get rid of it. Byler says it's more than past time because the image is damaging to abused women who seek help outside of the Amish communities but are denied due process because of the perception that the culture-within-a-culture takes care of itself. (Any misunderstandings or misrepresentations of her stance are my own, and I encourage readers to follow the links and determine the stance, themselves.) Unfortunately, court cases like the ones Byler was involved with are proof that there is trouble within a very human community, and, also unfortunately, the ways abuse is dealt with in some Amish communities is to punish the victims.

Anabaptism is on my radar: I'm struggling through taking Church History at Duke Divinity School and reading about Reformation on the European continent. The bloody persecution of Anabaptists is part of that history, and, like their modern-day counterparts, the Amish, there are cultural, economic, and social elements at play along with religious expression. Does the broader American culture that pushes into and drives the economies of many Amish regions remain hands-off on the abuse of women and children with a unique heritage? Is it American patriarchy partnering with Amish patriarchy that leaves women vulnerable to abuse? Probably. In 2024, American women of all cultures and ethnicities face abuse and lack of due process.

Part of the lived cultural experience today, Byler says, is widespread abuse that is obscured by the Amish romance industry's depiction of Amish women. Some novels may describe sacharrin-vanilla characters empty of drive, intelligence, or autonomy. Has a fictionalized depiction of a small demographic caused harm? Byler says it has. Is that depiction limiting the help available to young girls and women living Amish who face abuse on what Byler says is a regular basis? Her panel says it is. You can see both videos below.

and, this one:

https://fb.watch/qkPqCyyRqK/?

Part of my ministerial training

...involves listening. I need to listen to these women speaking their truth now. For my training, I also need to listen to the voices of the past, the probable ancestors of these women (culturally, if not genetically). Anna was drowned and then burned, as were many Anabaptist martyrs. See if your heart doesn't break reading this:

ANNA OF FREIBURG, A. D. 1529 | Women of Christianity

As a Christian scholar and leader, I need to listen to these women of the present and of the past to acknowledge that harm is done and has been done. After acknowledgement, what do we do? Do we act with justice? Do we turn our eyes away? Do we use our voices in print, or carry them forward in song? Do we march? Do we pray in silence? Does our response matter? To Byler and her guests, our response does matter.

The first response from us, after prayers for humanity, is to buy Byler's book. Just buy it. Rush to buy it, then buy it, and then read it. Tell your friends to buy it and ask your libraries to buy it. Byler has a story that is part of humanity's history and it cannot be ignored or erased. Read her story, mindful of triggers. This is your trigger warning, ok? Buy it here:

Reflections and Memories of An Amish Misfit: "My therapist says that’s not true, but I digress" - Kindle edition by Byler, Mary, Swartley, A

THEN,

Go to her website and any of the websites for non-profits she is supporting and support them, too. In these ways, we can actively listen and actively respond with care.

Here is where it gets sticky.

Byler's guest panel discussed an author, Beverly Lewis, known for writing in the current fiction genre. They called out evangelical white women as the audience for the industry, and questioned the readers' motives such as imagining a fairy tale of a simple farm life. Their description reminded me of a 2020s version of the 1970s Little House on the Prairie phase, but with Amish religion instead of Methodist. A complaint I thought I heard from Byler and her guests was the theology infused throughout the books -- white-washed Evangelicalism, not Anabaptist American Amish or Mennonite.

Additionally, they complained of being erased in identity when they expressed their lived experiences, because the fiction is affecting the reality. One panelist was told by a male, non-Amish-related professor that he knew more about being Amish than she. Mansplaining at its finest, right? The lude requests they also received as Amish-related women were really over the top, and yet, so very familiar to any woman in nearly every culture. Fetishism is everywhere and in every time. Who is surprised?

I heard their anguish at professional diminishment. I heard their anger at being traumatized and ignored. And I heard their appeal to other women like me, readers of fiction. They asked us to boycott the Amish novels the way we boycott McDonald's for Palestine and Starbucks for unions. I am willing to boycott, but I've been boycotting Gillette for 30 years for vivisection and Dole for 30 years for violence over vegetable fields, and I, as a single individual, am really, really tired. Also, I was really annoyed that I got lumped into a group of people whose motives were speculated on, but isn't that just life? Can I let that minor annoyance go to prevent true harm against a people? Isn't that part of listening and choosing wisely and with care? Sure, yes.

But.

Is the fiction harmful?

This is the "ourselves" part

On the personal history side.

My grandmother loved novels by Grace Livingston Hill.

Grace Livingston Hill

Grace Livingston Hill

She had a set just like the ones pictured below. I'll include a link to buy them, too. Enjoy.

Want to read some? Try this auction:

Lot of 22 Vintage Grace Livingston Hill Paperback Romance Novels. Chaste Lovin'! | eBay

Up for sale is this lot of. This price includes confirmation. but very nice lot overall!

Grace Livingston Hill novels were Christian fictional novels, clean and full of fluff, and Grandma loved them. She was Church of Christ, through and through, and five generations of our family have followed Church of Christ rules: no female teachers; and women cannot read in Church, serve communion, lead a prayer, or make a financial decision for a church. Women are to let their husbands be the head of the house, which means that men make the decisions for both the church and individual households. All Churches of Christ are independent, but my family had the knack of knowing which CoC was a "true" CoC and which wasn't -- some had pianos, and you know that wasn't going to fly! In my mother's era, no one divorced, no one danced, no one smoked, no one drank, and no one cussed -- in public. Countless relatives have their vices, but we all look the other way, or shame them, depending on who they are, how old they are, and what leadership roles they hold. It was an interesting life, full of love and faith, but not quite "right" for me, and sometimes, quite harmful. Abuse was hidden here, too. Whispers stayed in corners. Let's get back to Grandma.

Grandma was a spitfire, but she followed the rules, for the most part. She did divorce her wayward, violent husband and then remarry a gem of a man, and the couple had many early meetings with church heads before it was all through and they were allowed to marry. The Church of Christ, while no longer my cup of tea, is still full of caring people, and they cared for my grandparents for many years.

Grandma lived on an isolated farm as a young bride, and some of her children, including my mother, were born in a log cabin in the Ozarks. They had rusty trucks to take them to town, but on the farm, they used wagons. In the picture below, this couple is supposed to be my young grandparents, the wayward one and the spitfire, riding away on the wagon. They eventually sold the farm and migrated north to do factory work in Michigan, settling in Indiana. The family has been in northern Indiana for 70 years now. We have brunches at the Blue Gate Inn and spend occasional Wednesdays at the auctions. My grandpa, the one below, used to buy random lots from the Shipshewana auction and refurbish and resell them in front of his house in his retirement. This region holds our shared, intergenerational history.

The original of this photo hangs on my living room wall along with three others of people long passed. We don't remember their names but we still know their faces and their lineage. In 50 years, where will my photos be seen? It won't matter to me!

Grandma loved to take her grandkids to Nappanee to see the Amish tourist places. We didn't go because the people were Amish, though. We didn't gawk at them because 1) we were taught early in school about our Amish neighbors, 2) we shared the roads with the Amish, and 3) if someone wasn't Church of Christ, they weren't saved (in Grandma's book), and the Amish seemed to be set in their ways so staring at people without converting them would be rude. Grandma took us to Nappanee to see the tools she used to use on her farm. She showed us the sewing machines, the butter churns, and the wax-dipped candle strings. She would take a turn milking a goat to show us that she still could, and she'd reminisce about her old horses that used to work her father's farm and her own, too. Then she'd thank the young girls working that day and we'd leave.

On the way home, she and grandpa -- the second, not the wayward -- would split a hamburger and fries because "they were old and didn't eat much," and besides that, they could pinch a penny harder than anyone. And when she got home, she'd nap or re-read a Grace Livingston Hill fluff fiction that wasn't her religion but was close enough -- GLH was Presbyterian, but the books were "clean" and happy. I miss my grandma. I've run off on a few tangents already, so let's get back on track.

Was the fiction harmful? Is today's fiction harmful?

Grandma has now passed but she allowed that GLH was not harmful. My aunts and I don't read GLH, but we do read Amish novels -- many are romances, but some are mystery novels, and some feature DOGS. Yes, dogs. Cute little mutts. We read about fictional women taking care of their homes they way we still take care of our homes -- and yes, I live on an old farm. We read about fictional women who butt heads with stubborn men the way we do sometimes with our husbands. We read about fictional women who have limitations imposed on them by religion, or about fictional women who willingly participate in religious limitations. Members of my family fracture off into groups and leave one church community for another over disagreements, and when we come together at funerals we acknowledge the loss and then go our own ways. Religion both binds us together and rends us apart, and we identify with the situations in these silly, fictional books that let us read about the happy endings we wish we had.

Does anyone really have happy endings? Or do we gratefully acquire, or create, happy moments? Is a choice of fiction going to give a happy ending, or a happy moment? Will that choice cause a bad ending for women?

I want to be a listener, but I also want to be a discerner.

I don't want to consume graphic, dark novels. I don't want to buy or read porn. I don't want to read or watch anything that is going to have a trigger warning. These materials are harmful to me and to my psyche, but I am not going to call for their censorship for two reasons: 1. Censorship has dire consequences, and 2. Other morally decent and intelligent people do want to consume those materials. I have discerned that I feel better without associating with them. I argue that they can reflect violence in our society, but I also argue that they do not cause violence. Humanity is capable of violence on its own.

I don't know if I'll read any more Amish novels, but I may -- there are very good authors out there trying to make a living. I want to say that the novels are the modern day equivalent to GLH books -- harmless, fictional, and a trend that will wane. I'm not sure I can say that, so I ask more questions. What is the intentionality of the authors writing about Amish romances? Is it to harm a group? If the group says they are harmed by a false image, does a positive intent matter? Are the Amish depicted in books similar to the blonde in blonde jokes -- an annoying part of pop culture that is unfortunate for how actual blondes are perceived? Or, are they a misused cultural appropriation like Native American sports team mascots?

What will you do?

I'm going to finish Church History, then spend a month baking Grandma's bread recipe every week and crocheting a new sweater, or maybe a cross doily.

You should go buy Byler's book.

[ultrajustjo]

Of Loving Grace

Word of the Day: Staff

Today's meditation is not from my Examen practice this week, but from my morning office courtesy of the University of Notre Dame.

Before reading it, I prayed for the Word to be illuminated for me, and I pray that for you now.

Mk 6:7-13

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two

and gave them authority over unclean spirits.

He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick

–no food, no sack, no money in their belts.

They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.

He said to them,

"Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there.

Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,

leave there and shake the dust off your feet

in testimony against them."

So they went off and preached repentance.

The Twelve drove out many demons,

and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Meditation

ND alum Marisa Behan Bruce reflected that this story is of a two-sided call to serve. On the one side, the disciples were to go into the world. On the other side, the people receiving the disciples were called to provide hospitality.

This brilliant insight caused me to sit with it for a few moments in thanks and reverence. Being sent is scary, but maybe I can be part of the story on the receiving side. Maybe I can be a part in many stories' receiving sides when I'm not actively going forth.

Marisa distracted me with her fresh perspective. What I really wanted to examine in this reading was the walking stick. The disciples couldn't take much, but they were told to take a walking stick. Why?

What is a walking stick for? What is the nature of a walking stick? Why could they take a stick but not a snack?

Well, the Girl Scout in me says that walking sticks are for support in difficult terrain. They hold you up and give you traction when climbing -- you place it above you and use it to pull yourself up. When descending, walking sticks keep you upright -- you place them next to you and lean on them in order not to tumble down. On a straight path, a walking stick assures a steady gait.

Its nature is solid. Strong. Dependable. Unyielding, unbending. A walking stick is real and takes up matter that fills the hand and allows a comfortable grip. A walking stick allows you to fight off wolves, lions, wild dogs, or human attackers.

Jesus sent the disciples with a walking stick they could rely on, but for their other needs like sustenance, they would need to rely on hospitality.

Something else was niggling my mind: A walking stick sounds a lot like a staff, and imagery of a staff reminds me of Moses leading the Israelites. This people was also sent forth with a staff. Moses's staff had protected them with the power of God while they still lived under Pharoah. Now that they were free to go forth, the people still encountered God's power, strong, unyielding, unbending. In the desert, God's power manifested as manna from Heaven, or hospitality. In their travels, God's power manifested as protection in battle

One more thing -- the word "staff" brings Psalm 23 to mind, where it reads, "Thy rod and thy staff comfort me." In the imagery and manifestation of a walking stick, a staff, God comforts me. If I walk an unfamiliar path following Jesus's directions, if I go forth as God leads me forward through a desert, and if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I go with God. Everything I need will be provided as God intends, as I walk in faith.

I put God before me, and I know God will pull me up. When the slope down goes too fast, I lean into my Creator, and I don't tumble all the way down. (I might stumble. User error.) When I move forward, I move in confidence because God steadies me. I confidently grasp onto God's steadfast power and love.

Photos taken this week in NYS. 1. The path is winding, the way is cold, but the path is wide enough for you. 2. Small, broken, and snow-covered, but beautiful, purposeful, and not abandoned. 3. Hospitality takes many forms. These forms are a mango salad, a chocolate bubble waffle, and a mango yogurt tea.

[ultrajustjo]

25 posts!

Wow! 25 posts in 11 years! I'm a snail.

[ultrajustjo]

Of Loving Grace

Word of the day: Exegesis (rabbit hole)

The Examen

My examen practice is going ok, reviewing the day and looking ahead to the next. Yesterday, and this morning, I went down an exegetical rabbit hole (yes, I do feel that the words are redundant) based on this week's lectionary reading from Mark 16. The controversial inspired or not inspired ending in verses 15-18 were included in the day's reading.

My exegesis cares not a whit about whether it is canonical or apocryphal. I was struck by the meaning of two phrases in the whole as I was giving my own modern translation to the section -- one phrase was easily metaphorical and the other was untranslatable. I was stuck. When you're stuck, that's the sweet part, the part to dive into. Dive in with me!

Here's the original of the pseudo-original:

Mk 16:15-18

Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:

"Go into the whole world

and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;

whoever does not believe will be condemned.

These signs will accompany those who believe:

in my name they will drive out demons,

they will speak new languages.

They will pick up serpents with their hands,

and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.

They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission by University of Notre Dame, but not by me. I cut-and-pasted this whole thing from an email. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner. Go ahead, quote me on the ethics of it.

Here's mine:

Live in the world in a way that other creatures will experience the gospel.

Respond to God in the way that Jesus did,

or don't choose to be with God.

Those who respond to God will help to eliminate injustice, depression, and the ills of those around them,

they will speak love to those who don't know it.

They will handle the sly,

and ...

The Sweet Part

Time to jump into the Blue Letter Bible to examine Strong's words. What was going on in this addendum to Mark? Poison? Really? Parasitic water?

Ok, I could have skimmed over it and said, "If they experience hate they will not be discouraged" or something, but no. What's going on in the Greek?

Lest you think I ignored something else that was obvious, I had already peeked at "serpents," G3789, or "ophis." Could it mean snake? Yes. Could it also mean clever or sly? Of course. Keep the actual snakes outside, please.

The trickier phrase about drinking deadly things needed some work. "Drink" is G4095, which could literally mean to imbibe but could also mean to take in either literally or figuratively. "Deadly" is G2286, which is related to G2288, or thanatos. Thanatos, people! "Partaking of the nature of death" is the way bluebible.org said it. "Harm/hurt" is G984, or blapto, which does mean to physically injure, but also TO HINDER.

So, we have "figuratively taking in the nature of death but not being hindered." Awkward. What would the "nature of death" be that we would be figuratively taking in? This morning, that poison is negativity. Negativity about the gospel. Negativity about the faith. Negativity about God's word being trustworthy, and the relationship that is ours with the Lord, and about how we don't really need anyone but ourselves. We are immersed in this negativity that daily tries to poison us, to hinder us and keep us from being who we need to be as we reflect our faith to those around us. Let's finish my modern translation.

They will handle the sly, and if they experience negativity toward their experience with God, they will not be deterred.

They will affect all who are wanting in any way, and all will no longer want.

And this, my friends, is the Shepherd's prayer.

Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Winter Bird:

A bird on my deck, eating my lovebird's leftovers, in January. The Lord provides. The Lord makes a way. When we are in the cold winter, in the valley, experiencing a negative season, we will be refreshed, nourished, and cared for.

Here's a good point-counterpoint about the addendum in Mark:

A Case against the Longer Ending of Mark by Peter Head

An argument that Mark 16:9–20 is not original and so not inspired Scripture Peter Head considers the evidence against the Longer Ending and

.

[ultrajustjo]

Of Loving Grace

Word of the Day: Comfort

The Examen

My prayer and meditation time has focused lately on food security and comfort items. I am grateful to have sustenance and also flavor. Moments of safety and love in my life can add nuances to the flavor -- what was once a tolerance can become a fondness with a memory or a feeling to accompany it.

Coincidentally, my spiritual formation class the next day talked about comfort foods. We are embodied creatures (apparently "embodied" is a buzz word in theological circles now) and we need food. Our response to God and with God includes The Meal. Here are two meals that brought comfort to my family this week: homemade bread reminds me of my grandmother, baking for my children, and warm homes during cold winters; while huevos rancheros with salsita make my husband feel loved and full.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

[ultrajustjo]

Of Loving Grace

Word of the day: Thankful

Welcome to day 6 of this meditative series.

The Examen

During the "thankful" part of my examen prayer yesterday, this song came to me from my children's childhood: the Johnny Appleseed song. The lyrics were in a children's book and I sang them to my kids with the melody based on a distant memory from Girl Scout camp or VBS. I found out later that the melody I sang to them is not the melody associated with the lyrics. Canadian composer Rebekah Maxner and I compared tunes when she released her arrangement for students. How fun for me to chat with Rebekah!

Yesterday was snowy and cold in upstate New York, but my black golden doodle curled herself into a ball next to the cozy woodstove (after I chased her off all the furniture). She reminds me that, even though I may not have all I want, I have what I need. Sometimes, even if I don't have all that I need, even though my farmhouse is still cold because the frigid winds blow, I still have the love of God. The Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord for giving me the things I need -- the sun, the rain, and the appleseed.

When singing to my darling children, I couldn't ever sing the words properly. I always forgot the "rain" and sang "moon," instead, because Sun and Moon go together, a yin-and-yang, salt-and-pepper, day-and-night correlation. In my imperfection with the lyrics, I can still represent something good - creation. I can still reflect the goodness of God, and share it with my beloved. I share it with you, now, Beloved.

My version, then Disney's, then check out Rebekah's and maybe buy it!

Johnny Appleseed Grace, variation

Johnny Appleseed Grace, variation

Johnny Appleseed

Rock the Boat: Early Elementary piano (Preparatory A). Blues, boogie, jazz, expressive pop piano. 10 solos with optional teacher duets.

[ultrajustjo]

Photo taken 1/12 in Virginia, US. Altered.

Of Loving Grace

Word of the day: Spirit

The Examen

Using the examen prayer model, we first thank God for blessings, but then we ask the Spirit to illuminate our lives for examination. Just as we pray for illumination when we approach Scripture, we can ask God to illumine the parts of ourselves and our relationship with God that are pleasing AND the parts that need a little work. We can't fix what we don't know is broken.

It seems like we should know what is broken about ourselves, but I do know that I can hide my deepest issues from even myself. Praying during this portion of the examen is a way of keeping myself honest. There are many things I reflect on about myself with God that are GOOD. God makes all things Good, so I trust that I am Good. But, I take on Bad sometimes, and this is a moment in my day where I can acknowledge that Bad and, if I have the energy, ask God to help me discern what I should do to address it. Can I address it? Is there a way, any way at all, that I can make a bad situation or personality quirk or poor decision somewhat better?

Is there a way that I can offer myself grace the way God does?

For this part of the meditation, I begin with this prayer that I've heard my home church choir sing so often that I hear their voices, and not the voices on the video, when I pray. They sing it at a tempo closer to 1.25x, and that's how I situate myself in this musical prayer for illumination.

[ultrajustjo]

Of Loving Grace

Word of the day: failure

The Examen

I did a quick turnround on the prayer practice yesterday. In the Samford Univ Examen pdf that is free on the internet, the Thankful portion of the prayer stood out to me. I am to be thankful that God has chosen me through Christ -- me, with all of my gifts and all of my failures. God loves an imperfect me. Why am I trying so hard? Who am I trying to impress?

Photo is of my lemur earring, given by my adored daughter one year. We have a long history of loving lemurs, and now we love each other from afar. God has a long history of loving me. I wouldn't say that we are "afar."

[ultrajustjo]

Of Loving Grace

Word of the day: Companionship

The Examen

Ok, so I'm figuring out what works for me and what doesn't. I am not entirely responding to the prompts from Samford University, but I prefer them over the Xavier University questions. Yesterday, I did my examen meditation earlier in the day and I was also less grumpy doing it. Is there a causal relationship there? Probably. Is this practice making my journey with God better? The jury is still out.

Why companions? Well, it's cold and snowy and my kids are gone at school or work, and when I have no students, the house is empty but never quiet. This bird, for instance, fights with me all day. I wrestle with handling the noise of his squawks the way Abram wrestled with God. We tango, we adjust, then I give in and let him wound my ears and climb on my shoulder. We aren't walking alone, and we are walking with purpose. Sometimes we know the purpose, sometimes only God does, yet we still keep walking.

Let's go.