Monday, March 21, 2011
Lent - In Silence
Two years ago, the producers at Radiolab posted a sermon Robert Krulwich gave at a synagogue (http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2009/apr/07/in-silence/). In it, Robert wrestles with the twisted love story between Abraham and God. God commands his loving disciple Abraham to kill his son. Yes, Isaac is spared. But I have with me the haunting, terrifying image of a boy tied to a rock and his father standing over him with a knife, ready to kill.
This makes me think of Jesus and God. Many years later, God kills his only son. Yes, Jesus offers himself. Yes, ultimately we, his creation, condemned Jesus to the cross. But it is God's will that ultimately decided that Jesus must be killed. Jesus begged his Father in the garden to take away what was around the corner. But God's will was done - that his son suffer and die.
My heretical confession is this - I do not approve any of this.
Matthew 6:26 says "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" This passage is often used to comfort but during lent it has its opposite intent on me.
Look at Jesus, God's only son. God's will for him was to suffer and die. Isn't Jesus much more valuable to God than me? So what terrible plans does he have for me?
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Chocolat
contributed by Rebecca
I recently re-watched the movie Chocolat to see whether it would lend me any new insights heading into this Lenten season. I didn’t feel able to summarize it with an adequate review, but came across 2 juxtaposed movie reviews on Ron Reed’s Soul Food Movies blog that each shed some light, from different angles. I thought I’d share an excerpt from both:
. . . "Chocolat" blunders into a small French village in the spring of 1959 without a clue as to the meaning and power of Lenten sacrifice. It would not have taken exhaustive research to discover that Lent is a period of grieving for the ways humans mess up the world and hurt each other. It is a time that Christians turn inward and ask in the quiet of their hearts, "How have I been part of the problem?" In admitting these faults to God in the presence of a priest they gain profound peace and release, and the power to change their lives.
This simple concept is totally lost on the makers of "Chocolat." They're not alone; spiritual self-denial in any form is Moon Maid talk to Americans. Why is it so hard for us to understand the concept of spiritual discipline? The practice is present in some form in every world religion, yet we can fathom nothing but bigger, faster, fatter, more. Throughout the ages a universal principle has persisted that the person who seeks to enter the vast presence of God must do so by making himself smaller. Yet in America, dessert comes on a plate big enough for four. And America religion better follow suit, and promise a good time for all, all the time. . . . Yet just about any major religion gives the opposite advice. Self-discipline is a universal, even though the details of, and rationale for, these self-limitations vary widely. . . .
The more subtle point is that the climax of the film--the Count’s attempt to destroy the chocolate display, and his resulting binge--is presented as a direct result of his prayer before the crucifix. Superficially we might conclude that Jesus is telling him to go break up the chocolate idols. In fact of course the Count’s action leads to the beginning of his transformation--not, I think we can conclude, into a chocolate binging pagan, but into a Christian who knows something of how Christ welcomes the stranger. . . .
Thursday, March 17, 2011
St. Patrick's 'Breastplate Prayer'
Monday, March 14, 2011
Choruses from the Rock - opening stanza
The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.
O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying!
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Brings us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Run
Friday, March 4, 2011
Ash Wednesday Prayer
God may we remember
All of life is held together with nails
Piercing flesh of the son of man
May we remember and give thanks
God may we remember
The power of sin and death are forever ended
Hung upon a cross and crucified
May we remember and give thanks
God may we remember
The bread of life broken for us
That we may eat and be filled with abundance of life
May we remember and give thanks
God may we remember
God’s blood poured out for us
The deep wounds of love suffered for us
May we remember and give thanks
God may we remember ashes on foreheads
And kneel before the one whose love knows no end
With humbled hearts and repentant spirits
May we remember and give thanks
God may we remember we are but dust
And walk together into tomorrow’s unknowns
Breaking bars, building bridges, setting captives free
May we remember and give thanks
God may we remember and give thanks
Let us take up our cross and follow
Believing that in Christ all things work together for good
May we remember and give thanks
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Come and See!
Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them,
and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them.
They were terrified,
but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!”
he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.
The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!
And you will recognize him by this sign:
You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”
Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other,
“Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph.
And there was the baby, lying in the manger.
After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished,
but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.
The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.