Muggy. We were meeting in an Episcopal church along the river in a deeply wooded neighborhood of North Jacksonville. Good hiking trails to the river we were told at lunch time. No thanks. Too hot! On the deck outside our meeting room a family of raccoons hiked by. Not too hot and humid for them. We got a sandwich and continued talking. Our vision team was retreating, considering the insights from the book, Slow Church. Our church is slow enough I thought. We are out of the mainstream current for sure. So slow I wondered some times if were moving at all. What about finances? What about sustainability? We were a small, slow church. Who was going to replace those who moved on to other places, faster churches, perhaps? Those were some of my anxious questions. We don't have a permanent home. We have had to move several times in the past year. We are like nomads, someone offered. Hard to grow when you are moving all the time. Some Sundays we meet at the laundromat and wash and dry clothes with the locals or at the neighborhood park and clean and cook and talk to the people. I wonder some times what we are doing. If we are getting anywhere. What is our mission? We asked at this retreat.
We have t-shirts that share our vision: Love others, no exceptions. We are a diverse group, if a small one. The pastor led us in a reading from Ephesians 1. We heard the words of grace and blessing. Blessing, we said, a word over used for sure. What if everyone knew they were blessed by God, lavishly. We knew a lot of people who did not know that, and felt like an unblessing. What if people felt they mattered to God and he had blessed them so they could bless others. No matter who they were or how unblessed others saw them. What a powerful vision! By the end of the meetings my anxious questions had melted away. Let's go, slow.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Monday, August 17, 2015
Hope for North Korea
Night time photos shot from space over North Korea reveal a country in total darkness when compared to the night time lights of China or South Korea. Some new memoirs are appearing that shed some light on life in the darkness that is North Korea. Most Westerners know little about life there. Joseph Kim's memoir, Under the Same Sky, is a must read for a number of reasons. Kim, who is only in his late 20's now, begins his story when he is an elementary student. Like many kids he enjoyed playing outside with friends and the love of his parents who desired the best for him. But, the best in NK is very different from the least in many other places. Kim knew nothing about life outside NK. When Kim Il Sung died what economy that NK had died, too. The years of the Great Famine began. Millions died of starvation while others scavenged for something to eat every day. People searched the mountains for food, sold what they could, bargained, stole or tried to sneak into China to trade goods. If they were caught they went to prison; gangs of pre-teens were rounded up and sent to brutal youth detention centers. Young girls were sold as sex slaves. Kim's story reveals a place that deserves to be in one of Dante's circles of hell. Yet, Kim and his fellow North Koreans knew no different and loved their homeland. They hoped for better days even while their friends and families died. After his father died, his mother was in prison and his sister sold over the border in China, Kim chose to try to cross the border himself. One of his ex-con friends told him to look for a church. What is a church, he asked. It is a place that talks about God. Who is God, he asked. North Korea is an atheist country and it has pretty much rid it's life of any traces of God. In fact, NK is what life looks like when people have done that. Or, when the state has done that. The people are quite open to hearing about Christianity. When Kim crosses the border he asks an old man how he can find a church. Look for a cross, the man said. Kim knew what a cross was it meant a hospital in NK. How do I find one, Kim asked the man. Look up, the man said. Kim did and he found a church. Not every church helped him but one did and through a Christian grandmother and LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) he was helped to find a new life in America. It's not a fairy tale story. Kim still has plenty of challenges; some days he is memorizing the Bible and other days spiraling into another round of depression. He has been out of NK for nine years and here with the help of author Stephan Talty tells his story. He says he told his story so that others would have a more compassionate perspective of the North Korean people. "My hope in telling my story, our story, is that the lives of the North Korean people would not be forgotten. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to so many important people in my life who have helped me to make it this far and have been a part of shaping who I am today.
We need these stories. So we don't forget. Some days Kim is consumed by survivor's guilt but he has hope that things can get better in his home country for his people. And that he will be reunited with his sister, Bong Sook, who he dedicated this book to. Hope is what makes us live, he says.
We need these stories. So we don't forget. Some days Kim is consumed by survivor's guilt but he has hope that things can get better in his home country for his people. And that he will be reunited with his sister, Bong Sook, who he dedicated this book to. Hope is what makes us live, he says.
Spiritual warfare
I was preaching on Ephesians 6:10-18 on Sunday. Our pastor was wrapping up a series on Ephesians from the lectionary and since she was away all week asked me to preach on this concluding text. I kidded her about wanting to get out of a difficult text. She told me I could preach on whatever I wanted. So I went with the challenge - and finished the Ephesian series. Eph 6: 10-18 is on spiritual warfare. Judging by the number of Christian books written on this subject, it is a huge deal. I have read some of them. They get into spiritual mapping and many other technical aspects of spiritual warfare. It would seem there is a lot to know - beyond what Paul writes. Some Christian writers/preachers believe that the legion of devils led by satan have targeted individual Christians and their churches to disable the good work God is doing through them. In their thinking, this text becomes very individualized and personal. There is a good bit of anxiety and fear of the devil that is a consequence of their teaching. Which seems the opposite of what Paul is saying.
Ralph Martin points out in his commentary on Ephesians that it was a fear of the demonic that led Paul to write about spiritual warfare in the first place. Because of that fear, Christians were defecting under pressure. Thus, Paul writes, Resist, Watch, Pray, and Be Alert!.
What Paul says here is not all that different from the counsel he has given in other places. In fact, to call it spiritual warfare is to put words in Paul's mouth and strange ideas in our own minds. This is not about some special battle with evil we are called to fight. It is a reminder that we live out the gospel in a hostile world. Calling the Church to remain steadfast in the midst of constant trials is a common theme of Paul (and James and Peter). The point here is the strength of God's power (6:10, echoing 1:19) - Which was a at work when God raised Jesus from the dead to rule over all the principalities and powers.
Be strong in the Lord is a command! In the Lord means in union with Christ in whom we are raised and seated above the principalities and powers. But, not just yet. Our hope is tempered by the realities of living in a world that poses numerous opportunities for people to resist God and His will. No less the Church which can be distracted by all sorts of silliness and worse, and tempted to act as if we were above temptation to sin. We can be so optimistic we ignore the evils around us, or so pessimistic we cringe every time a demon peeks at us from behind a bush, or we can be realistic which is what Paul advises here.
God has given us what we need to resist the assaults of the evil powers. We do not have to rely on our own strength which is not very strong at all but that's ok because we have God's mighty strength. "In the interim we are to resist the resistance to God's cause. We are not called to defend God, not even called exactly to defend our own souls; we are called to defend the beachheads God's cause has made, the displays here and there of a renewed creation and a new humanity, the places and times that bear the promise of God's good future." (Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians).
The weapons of war that Paul enumerates are not the secret of our success but the fact that they are God's weapons give us confidence. The weapons have all been mentioned before in the Bible. And they were visible to Paul every day that he was held as Roman prisoner. As Martin notes what is important is that no provision is lacking, no part of the body is unprotected. Our protection as believers is complete and sure.
The Bible does not explain evil - where it came from or why it is - it only says it is and we can readily agree with that. We know it when we see it. As we live out the Kingdom of God life here on earth we will have many encounters with it. "We will not fear for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us." (Martin Luther).
Ralph Martin points out in his commentary on Ephesians that it was a fear of the demonic that led Paul to write about spiritual warfare in the first place. Because of that fear, Christians were defecting under pressure. Thus, Paul writes, Resist, Watch, Pray, and Be Alert!.
What Paul says here is not all that different from the counsel he has given in other places. In fact, to call it spiritual warfare is to put words in Paul's mouth and strange ideas in our own minds. This is not about some special battle with evil we are called to fight. It is a reminder that we live out the gospel in a hostile world. Calling the Church to remain steadfast in the midst of constant trials is a common theme of Paul (and James and Peter). The point here is the strength of God's power (6:10, echoing 1:19) - Which was a at work when God raised Jesus from the dead to rule over all the principalities and powers.
Be strong in the Lord is a command! In the Lord means in union with Christ in whom we are raised and seated above the principalities and powers. But, not just yet. Our hope is tempered by the realities of living in a world that poses numerous opportunities for people to resist God and His will. No less the Church which can be distracted by all sorts of silliness and worse, and tempted to act as if we were above temptation to sin. We can be so optimistic we ignore the evils around us, or so pessimistic we cringe every time a demon peeks at us from behind a bush, or we can be realistic which is what Paul advises here.
God has given us what we need to resist the assaults of the evil powers. We do not have to rely on our own strength which is not very strong at all but that's ok because we have God's mighty strength. "In the interim we are to resist the resistance to God's cause. We are not called to defend God, not even called exactly to defend our own souls; we are called to defend the beachheads God's cause has made, the displays here and there of a renewed creation and a new humanity, the places and times that bear the promise of God's good future." (Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians).
The weapons of war that Paul enumerates are not the secret of our success but the fact that they are God's weapons give us confidence. The weapons have all been mentioned before in the Bible. And they were visible to Paul every day that he was held as Roman prisoner. As Martin notes what is important is that no provision is lacking, no part of the body is unprotected. Our protection as believers is complete and sure.
The Bible does not explain evil - where it came from or why it is - it only says it is and we can readily agree with that. We know it when we see it. As we live out the Kingdom of God life here on earth we will have many encounters with it. "We will not fear for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us." (Martin Luther).
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Trumps card
I was shaking my head over the whole Donald Trump leading in the polls news feed and wondering what are Republicans thinking. Today on NPR's Diane Rehm show some pundits said it was plausible Trump might actually win the nomination or run on a third party ticket. Scary thought: President Donald Trump. I told my wife we better make plans to move to Mexico if that happened! What are Christians thinking? Here is a caricature of the Rich Fool in the Bible, a supreme egotist. Who has been married many times which matters because Jesus actually said something about that. Not to mention greed. Trump admitted he mostly leaves God out of his life. At least, he tells the truth sometimes.
Anyway on the NPR show, one of the pundits said that any one running for President has to have a big ego to think that he would be the best choice for America to run the country for the next four years. Trump is only saying what everyone else is thinking about himself.
True. Compared to the Bible, we don't pick our candidates for leaders like God does. Think King David, who his own father did not think was leader material when Samuel came looking. Or Moses who mostly begged off the assignment God had for him. Then, there were several of the Judges, leaders, who would rather not have been. The prophets like Jonah who fled rather than lead. Paul who was leading but in the wrong direction before God intervened.
Jesus. The Messiah. We never would have nominated him for King. If he had an ego he left it in heaven, taking the form of a servant, calling his followers to do the same.
It is too much to hope that any of the presidential candidates will be like Jesus. He wouldn't be electable if he or she was. Anyway the coming debates are the new reality shows for the fall tv season. It is entertainment. Trump will drive ratings to new highs. Sell Murdoch's papers even though he claims to dislike Trump he likes to sell the news about Trump. Fox will trump CNN or MSNBC. Limbaugh will add listeners.
While this sideshow is going on, what do you and I do? Pray, Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And practice humility in humble act of service where we are. AMEN
Anyway on the NPR show, one of the pundits said that any one running for President has to have a big ego to think that he would be the best choice for America to run the country for the next four years. Trump is only saying what everyone else is thinking about himself.
True. Compared to the Bible, we don't pick our candidates for leaders like God does. Think King David, who his own father did not think was leader material when Samuel came looking. Or Moses who mostly begged off the assignment God had for him. Then, there were several of the Judges, leaders, who would rather not have been. The prophets like Jonah who fled rather than lead. Paul who was leading but in the wrong direction before God intervened.
Jesus. The Messiah. We never would have nominated him for King. If he had an ego he left it in heaven, taking the form of a servant, calling his followers to do the same.
It is too much to hope that any of the presidential candidates will be like Jesus. He wouldn't be electable if he or she was. Anyway the coming debates are the new reality shows for the fall tv season. It is entertainment. Trump will drive ratings to new highs. Sell Murdoch's papers even though he claims to dislike Trump he likes to sell the news about Trump. Fox will trump CNN or MSNBC. Limbaugh will add listeners.
While this sideshow is going on, what do you and I do? Pray, Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And practice humility in humble act of service where we are. AMEN
Friday, July 10, 2015
Hope in death valley
Ezekiel 37 is one of my favorite Old Testament texts. The valley of the bones. Scattered bones. Not just skeletons but bones and more bones strewn every which way. Which makes the miracle seen in the vision Ezekiel was given all the more startling. God asks: Ezekiel, can these bones live? Ezekiel is wondering, perhaps, is this a trick question. He would likely say, No! Of course these bones cannot live. They are dry, dead bones. And he did not have a clue which bone went with which. So, he takes the safe way out and answers, O LORD God, you know. I love the response. God knows, of course, he does. There is a lot we would like to know. How was the world created? How many days? Where do the dinosaurs fit in? And that's just the first few verses of the Bible.
God says, Son of man, say to bones, Hear the word of the LORD, and I will put my breath into them and they will be given life.
These bones are not even the skeletons of the lives they once were. They are not even corpses. They are dried out bones, as dead as one can be. Speak to the dead, God says. Some preachers know something about that. Some sermons seem more like funeral orations in a cemetery full of dead people. Nothing happens. There is no hope.
Israel in exile was like that. They were saying, We have no hope. God has abandoned us. We are cut off which means as good as dead. They had no hope, no faith and no love. To quibble with Paul, the greatest of these is hope.
So God's word to Israel at this moment in their history is really three words combined.
First, is the promise that it will get better. Not by their logic or according to their schedules and not with their help by the way, either. God's hope may not look like what they expected God's hope to look like. We should take note. When we are hopeless, God is not. He has hope for us. Hang in there.
Second, God's hope has many layers. Haiti is often pictured as a hopeless place. Its people are poor with little hope for improvement. Their government is corrupt and has ripped the people off for years. The country seems to be in the path of hurricanes and earthquakes. The people live on much less than we think we could survive on. They survive and there are pockets of real joy, and faith fuels love and hope. God has His ways of breathing life into His people where all we see is death.
The source of perseverance, writes John Mogabgab, like the Christian undertaking itself, is not of human origin. To persevere, he writes, means to cling to God's plan and promise in realistic expectation that what a faithful and just God intends cannot be overthrown by human schemes.
From the human side things looked bleak in the valley of dry bones. Even after this word of the LORD, Rabbi Eliezer comments in the Babylonian Talmud: The dead that Ezekiel revived, got up on their feet, sang a hymn and died! Not a lot of hope there.
But God says through Ezekiel that His people should not be defined by their hopeless looking situation. Rather, they must align themselves with the Living God (ruach the Hebrew word for breath is used several times here, and in the Septuagint it is the word translated by Holy Spirit). The Spirit of God breathes life into us. So we can let ourselves be defined by our hopeless looking situations or we can choose to align ourselves with God's Spirit which is Life no matter what. On PBS the other night a journalist reported that over 12,000 Greeks have committed suicide in the past 5 years of financial crisis. For good reasons, they concluded there was no hope, no reason to live. This, too, in a largely Christian nation. It's not easy to sustain hope and hope is necessary for life.
Still, as the good Rabbi pointed out, the revival pictured in this vision was short-lived. Cyrus of Persia allowed the Israelites to return home. But, their return did not turn the land of Israel into a Garden of Eden. Nor was there any large scale outpouring of God's Spirit - at least until Pentecost. And no mass resurrections, only one we know about and that was hundreds of years later. (see Jenson, Ezekiel, 284)
It seems in our world of unrelenting calamity and misery, injustice and war, that hope is a hard commodity to come by. Some times the markers of hope are not very visible. You have to persevere, hopefully, with a generous community full of faith and love.
God says, Son of man, say to bones, Hear the word of the LORD, and I will put my breath into them and they will be given life.
These bones are not even the skeletons of the lives they once were. They are not even corpses. They are dried out bones, as dead as one can be. Speak to the dead, God says. Some preachers know something about that. Some sermons seem more like funeral orations in a cemetery full of dead people. Nothing happens. There is no hope.
Israel in exile was like that. They were saying, We have no hope. God has abandoned us. We are cut off which means as good as dead. They had no hope, no faith and no love. To quibble with Paul, the greatest of these is hope.
So God's word to Israel at this moment in their history is really three words combined.
First, is the promise that it will get better. Not by their logic or according to their schedules and not with their help by the way, either. God's hope may not look like what they expected God's hope to look like. We should take note. When we are hopeless, God is not. He has hope for us. Hang in there.
Second, God's hope has many layers. Haiti is often pictured as a hopeless place. Its people are poor with little hope for improvement. Their government is corrupt and has ripped the people off for years. The country seems to be in the path of hurricanes and earthquakes. The people live on much less than we think we could survive on. They survive and there are pockets of real joy, and faith fuels love and hope. God has His ways of breathing life into His people where all we see is death.
The source of perseverance, writes John Mogabgab, like the Christian undertaking itself, is not of human origin. To persevere, he writes, means to cling to God's plan and promise in realistic expectation that what a faithful and just God intends cannot be overthrown by human schemes.
From the human side things looked bleak in the valley of dry bones. Even after this word of the LORD, Rabbi Eliezer comments in the Babylonian Talmud: The dead that Ezekiel revived, got up on their feet, sang a hymn and died! Not a lot of hope there.
But God says through Ezekiel that His people should not be defined by their hopeless looking situation. Rather, they must align themselves with the Living God (ruach the Hebrew word for breath is used several times here, and in the Septuagint it is the word translated by Holy Spirit). The Spirit of God breathes life into us. So we can let ourselves be defined by our hopeless looking situations or we can choose to align ourselves with God's Spirit which is Life no matter what. On PBS the other night a journalist reported that over 12,000 Greeks have committed suicide in the past 5 years of financial crisis. For good reasons, they concluded there was no hope, no reason to live. This, too, in a largely Christian nation. It's not easy to sustain hope and hope is necessary for life.
Still, as the good Rabbi pointed out, the revival pictured in this vision was short-lived. Cyrus of Persia allowed the Israelites to return home. But, their return did not turn the land of Israel into a Garden of Eden. Nor was there any large scale outpouring of God's Spirit - at least until Pentecost. And no mass resurrections, only one we know about and that was hundreds of years later. (see Jenson, Ezekiel, 284)
It seems in our world of unrelenting calamity and misery, injustice and war, that hope is a hard commodity to come by. Some times the markers of hope are not very visible. You have to persevere, hopefully, with a generous community full of faith and love.
Monday, July 6, 2015
Theology and life
The Scripture reading on Sunday was from Ephesians chapter one. If you are familiar with it you know it is the chapter that blows you away with its high powered theological language. There's predestination, and chosen, and redemption, the mystery of God's will, forgiveness, our inheritance in Christ, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. A tad bit intimidating. It's a theologians dream and they have written great and huge tomes on one or more of those theological terms. So, you could spend a year of diligent study on this one long Pauline sentence in verses 3-14. There is enough preaching material to keep a preacher busy for months. There is a lot of theological turf to fight over, too. Christians are territorial and most of us have staked out our positions on this chapter's big words. Chosen, does that mean God chooses some and not others? Does it mean God chooses us before we choose him (what about free will?)?
Predestination, and so how is that different from fate and does it mean some are predestined not to be in the family of God? What about free will?
How does the atonement work? What type of atonement view is the right one? How does forgiveness fit in?
How mysterious is God's will, what can we know and not know?
And we still have not gotten to the part of the sentence about the Holy Spirit, the pledge of our inheritance, and what that means.
As the Scripture was read, I was thinking about those great phrases and how divisive they have been for the church. Christians have fought and even died over their interpretations of those holy words! The churches in your area may have totally different approaches to one or more of the ideas in this chapter. In fact, you may have chosen the church you're in because of how they view one of those words (or did God choose your church for you before you did!) Did He lead you there? Did He know where you would fit in the best?
While the pastor talked about how Christians were divided about the weighty decisions of the Supreme Court and the state of South Carolina on the future of the Confederate flag as illuminated on Facebook this week, I was thinking about how divided we are on basic theology. So, it's not surprising we can't agree on social issues.
This Ephesians text begins with the word that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. In the middle it says God has lavished the riches of His grace on us. At the end it says we have all received the Holy Spirit, the down payment on our eternal inheritance with the saints.
When I tuned back into what the pastor was saying, I heard her say we can easily miss the Big Picture of what God is doing and our part in it. God's Big Picture is awesome and we get to work along side of Him. She suggested God might be better served if we were peacemakers rather than dividers.
All this pointed me back to an article I read by Marilynne Robinson in Christian Century this week. In it she wrote: "faith lives in the human world by the grace of God, because of the love and loyalty of God, and in the presence of God, which is free, indifferent to our anxieties, to our categories, and to our very negative judgments about the spiritual state of our neighbors."
Ephesians one is good news. May God help me to live it.
Predestination, and so how is that different from fate and does it mean some are predestined not to be in the family of God? What about free will?
How does the atonement work? What type of atonement view is the right one? How does forgiveness fit in?
How mysterious is God's will, what can we know and not know?
And we still have not gotten to the part of the sentence about the Holy Spirit, the pledge of our inheritance, and what that means.
As the Scripture was read, I was thinking about those great phrases and how divisive they have been for the church. Christians have fought and even died over their interpretations of those holy words! The churches in your area may have totally different approaches to one or more of the ideas in this chapter. In fact, you may have chosen the church you're in because of how they view one of those words (or did God choose your church for you before you did!) Did He lead you there? Did He know where you would fit in the best?
While the pastor talked about how Christians were divided about the weighty decisions of the Supreme Court and the state of South Carolina on the future of the Confederate flag as illuminated on Facebook this week, I was thinking about how divided we are on basic theology. So, it's not surprising we can't agree on social issues.
This Ephesians text begins with the word that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. In the middle it says God has lavished the riches of His grace on us. At the end it says we have all received the Holy Spirit, the down payment on our eternal inheritance with the saints.
When I tuned back into what the pastor was saying, I heard her say we can easily miss the Big Picture of what God is doing and our part in it. God's Big Picture is awesome and we get to work along side of Him. She suggested God might be better served if we were peacemakers rather than dividers.
All this pointed me back to an article I read by Marilynne Robinson in Christian Century this week. In it she wrote: "faith lives in the human world by the grace of God, because of the love and loyalty of God, and in the presence of God, which is free, indifferent to our anxieties, to our categories, and to our very negative judgments about the spiritual state of our neighbors."
Ephesians one is good news. May God help me to live it.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Worship and sandwiches
The weather began to look stormy as we prepared for the worship service in the only shaded corner of the parking lot at Market and Monroe in downtown Jacksonville. The forecast called for severe storms to begin at 1 pm and it looked accurate. We tore down what we had set up, brought the bag lunches we had made at our pastor's house this morning inside and about a hundred of us sought shelter inside the conference room of the Episcopal Diocese. It was steamy inside as we sat or stood shoulder to shoulder. We sang some hymns. Then, we read the Scriptures. I noted how different Psalm 130 sounded in the midst of 90 people who were living on the streets. Some had all they owned in backpacks or in grocery store carts outside. One man in front of me said I need a shower and walked outside to get drenched. Some people were waving their hands to the LORD. Most read the Scripture with the reader. Some added their own interpretive comments.
Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord, we prayed.
Let Your ears consider well the voice of our supplication.
My soul waits for the Lord, and we waited.
While a man, bald and maybe 55, sweat stained and wearing well - worn shorts and a t-shirt, read the New Testament reading from 2 Corinthians 8. I was surprised he read so well (why?), and wondered what he had done before he ended up on the street.
You know the generous act of our LORD Jesus Christ, though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor (Poor - it hit me like a gut punch). Your gift is acceptable according to what one has not according to what one does not have. The one who had much to give did not have too much and the one who had little did not have too little.
Then the pastor read the gospel from Mark 5, the story about the raising of Jairus daughter from the dead. There was a woman seated to the right of the pastor who obviously knew the text and kept up a running commentary on it. When he read that the people laughed at Jesus for saying his daughter was not dead only sleeping, she said, of course they did. I imagine she had been laughed at a lot. She nearly shouted, Talitha cum. And then raised her hands and looked around the room, smiling, shaking her head and said, He raises the dead, as if that was a matter of fact and there was no denying it.
The pastor finished up and led the prayers of the people. Many people prayed for the sick, for job interviews, for addictions and for family members a long way off and everyone responded: Hear our prayer.
A few of the young people from our church were recruited to take the plate holding the cups of grape juice around the room following the pastor who held the bread and gave a generous piece to each of us. I thought it tasted like King's Hawaiian, a little bit of paradise.
Everyone got up and passed the peace. The blessing followed another hymn. The bottles of water and sandwiches, cookies and fruit were distributed. The skies had cleared and people hung out in the parking lot talking.
Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord, we prayed.
Let Your ears consider well the voice of our supplication.
My soul waits for the Lord, and we waited.
While a man, bald and maybe 55, sweat stained and wearing well - worn shorts and a t-shirt, read the New Testament reading from 2 Corinthians 8. I was surprised he read so well (why?), and wondered what he had done before he ended up on the street.
You know the generous act of our LORD Jesus Christ, though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor (Poor - it hit me like a gut punch). Your gift is acceptable according to what one has not according to what one does not have. The one who had much to give did not have too much and the one who had little did not have too little.
Then the pastor read the gospel from Mark 5, the story about the raising of Jairus daughter from the dead. There was a woman seated to the right of the pastor who obviously knew the text and kept up a running commentary on it. When he read that the people laughed at Jesus for saying his daughter was not dead only sleeping, she said, of course they did. I imagine she had been laughed at a lot. She nearly shouted, Talitha cum. And then raised her hands and looked around the room, smiling, shaking her head and said, He raises the dead, as if that was a matter of fact and there was no denying it.
The pastor finished up and led the prayers of the people. Many people prayed for the sick, for job interviews, for addictions and for family members a long way off and everyone responded: Hear our prayer.
A few of the young people from our church were recruited to take the plate holding the cups of grape juice around the room following the pastor who held the bread and gave a generous piece to each of us. I thought it tasted like King's Hawaiian, a little bit of paradise.
Everyone got up and passed the peace. The blessing followed another hymn. The bottles of water and sandwiches, cookies and fruit were distributed. The skies had cleared and people hung out in the parking lot talking.
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