Saturday - Looking for God

10: It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.
11: And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.
12: Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. Luke 24

Ah men, when women come with the best, the most outrageous news ever, they don't believe them but need to check for themselves!

Now I'm not against personally checking out things but you would think that after all the time they had spent in each others company that Peter & the other men might have believed the reports from more than 3 of the women of their company. But they 'believed them not' and went to see for themselves.

What a different world we would live in if the text read something like. They rejoiced at the news and ran to see for themselves. Same actions, different attitudes.

Friday - Never Betrayed

1: When Jesus had said these words he went out with his disciples over the stream Kedron to a garden, into which he went with his disciples. John 18

Judas's betrayal was in a garden. The 3 days of arrest, trail, death, burial and Resurrection all began in a garden. I wonder if the Evangelist John, deliberately started this train of events in the Garden of Gethsemane to echo the betrayal of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden? I think it's highly likely. Interesting thought.

Thursday - Join in the Banquet

24: And when it had been broken with an act of praise, he said, This is my body which is for you: do this in memory of me. 1 Cor. 11

Bread & wine, the basics of life. Become/are/recognized as, the essence of the eternal "I AM" Can the mystery be so close at hand? Shouldn't we need to seek further to find the meaning of all things. Bread & wine, food & drink, company of friends & family, these are where the mystery is revealed. Today we start the three days of remembrance and launch ourselves to the Celebration of Easter.

Wed. - A Bitter Cup

15: What will you give me, if I give him up to you? And the price was fixed at thirty bits of silver. Matthew 26

Matthew's Gospel has the gritty detail. He has the cut and dried, how much is it worth to me? Judas is more honest than many betrayers, at least in this portrait. He knows what he wants and asks for the price. When he gets it he delivers.

How many people with power to make decisions are swayed by the financial benefits, to themselves, of deciding in certain ways? How many of us are betrayed by cozy contract awards, convenient job assignments etc.? As a society, we try to regulate things into their proper places. But no matter how dense a forest of regulations the truly self serving can find a way to circumvent them.

It comes down to personal integrity and recognizing when you are being bought.

Tuesday - Contrite Hearts

26: This was the answer Jesus gave: It is the one to whom I will give this bit of bread after I have put it in the vessel. Then he took the bit of bread, put it into the vessel, and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
27: And when Judas took the bread Satan went into him. Then Jesus said to him, Do quickly what you have to do. John 13

Here Judas is given his marching orders. It's not very clear to me how much actual responsibility Judas had for this betrayal. He seems to have been inclined to do it but Jesus really eggs him on here. Pointing him out and sending him off to get it done. Later, in the garden, Jesus greets him as much as Judas greets Jesus. Overall, it needed to be done, we are told, to fulfill the prophecy. I wonder how much re imagining of events the Evangelists did to connect to the various prophecies? We are told that the Holy Spirit guided the choices of the editors of the New Testament several hundred years after all the facts. Truth or even accuracy is a very slippery concept.

Monday - Courage

1: The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27

Here is the opening line of one of the popular Psalms. The speaker describes his relationship to God as to the Lord. It reads as a near perfect description of the classic European Feudal relationship. The 'servant' does as he is told and the 'lord' protects and provides all. It is a relationship that worked reasonably well for a long time of ignorance.

Trouble comes when, in a religious context, one realizes that each person is that 'special servant' to the lord and thus are all equal to each other. Our human instinct is to put ourselves as higher up the importance chain than everyone else and if we are all servants of the lord then we are all equals in his regard.

God has no trouble seeing us as equals to each other. It's we who keep looking for the edge on everyone else.

Just saying

Sunday - Palm Bonus

In the reading of the Passion the crowd plays an important part. They cheer with welcome at the start. Hysterically waving palms and greeting Jesus as he rides into the city. A week later they are back, equally hysterical, demanding his death.

These crowds are enthusiastic and, I would guess, heartfelt, while they praise and condemn the same person with equal vigor and reason. They were not responding to reason either time but to the well chosen words of the agitators. They were putty in the hands of the commentators that they knew and believed. They had no notion of the facts, never wanted or asked to be confused with the facts. They responded to the urgings of people who wanted their voices for their own agendas.

I hope that we can take some wisdom from their woeful experience. We should take care to examine the facts and refuse to be swayed by emotive rhetoric. We need to take note of who is paying the bill as they are likely to be the benefactors.

In the year 33 CE the crowd was wrong. the High Priests got their way and removed a rival but at what cost to the people of Israel?

Sunday - Palm Sunday

7: But he made himself as nothing, taking the form of a servant, being made like men; Philippians 2

Or conversely, he made himself in the form of a human ennobling that natural form beyond all reason.

Sat - Ultimate Scarifice

48: If we let him go on in this way, everybody will have belief in him and the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation.
50: You do not see that it is in your interest for one man to be put to death for the people, so that all the nation may not come to destruction.
51: He did not say this of himself, but being the high priest that year he said, as a prophet, that Jesus would be put to death for the nation; John 11

Politics again. Or maybe, the Evangelist is putting political motives on a jealousy situation between the High Priests & Jesus as an upcoming religious leader outside of the official hierarchy. In any case this is the second day recently when ancient politics has been the basis of the biblical story. It's both comforting and alarming that people have changed so little in a few thousand years.

Friday - Definition

10: For numbers of them say evil secretly in my hearing (there is fear on every side): they say, Come, let us give witness against him; all my nearest friends, who are watching for my fall, say, It may be that he will be taken by deceit, and we will get the better of him and give him punishment. Jeremiah 20

Of course the Lord saves him because Jeremiah is doing his work but aren't the echos of nasty politics from the ancient past eerie?

Thursday - Annunciation

9: Then he said, See, I have come to do your pleasure. He took away the old order, so that he might put the new order in its place.
10: By that pleasure we have been made holy, by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for ever. Hebrews 10

And Christ has been born and died for us. So all will be well with the world.

We never managed to do the old order very well so here's hoping that we manage to live rightly with the new order.

Wed - Cheer

32: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
42: Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. John 8

That is the truth attested to in the first line. This information is the key. What do we do with the freedom?

Tues - declaring to all

29: And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. John 8

This is the only line in the reading that seems to make sense this morning. Maybe I'm being dense but St John's Gospel is sounding like gobbledegook to me today.

So Jesus and the Father are one. this is good news in that we see one we see both. we act like one we act like both. We revere one we revere both.

The passion and Easter rising are coming soon.

Monday - The Word of God

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. Psalm 23

This seems to be the Old Testament version of "Give us this day our daily bread" So, it seems the concept is really embedded in the whole belief system. I continue to rely on God's bounty.

Sunday - Repent

11: And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth sin no more. John 8

Just start fresh. All of us are sinful in one degree or another. We need to be able to put it behind us and move on. And allow other people to move on as well.

Saturday - Viewpoint

41: Others said, This is the Christ. But others said, Not so; will the Christ come from Galilee? John 7

I'm told that Galilee was the ultimate 'wrong side of the tracks'. Supposedly nothing of much good could be expected to come from Galilee. So this is another example of all are included in God's love.

If the ultimate man, the Son of God, could come from there then anyone can be included. I'm guessing that that means me too. That's good.

Friday - St. Joseph

18: Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way: when his mother Mary was going to be married to Joseph, before they came together the discovery was made that she was with child by the Holy Spirit.
19: And Joseph, her husband, being an upright man, and not desiring to make her a public example, had a mind to put her away privately.
20: But when he was giving thought to these things, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, have no fear of taking Mary as your wife; because that which is in her body is of the Holy Spirit. Matt 1

We hear so much, and correctly so, about Mary's courage in accepting the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation. OTOH Joseph's courage was nearly as large. No the pregnancy did not happen to him personally. No man has ever had that particular challenge/joy but in a culture of extreme rectitude, in a small town, he stayed by his pregnant fiance knowing full well that he was not the father. Line 19 was about the best Mary could hope for in 'normal' circumstances. But Joseph was much better than normal. He followed through with the marriage and was a faithful husband and father. That is hard in any age or circumstance. Joseph did it knowing his buddies were laughing behind his back and his family was probably sort of disapproving too. They could all count to 9 and knew that he had not been into early relations.

I will keep his courage in mind. Sometimes it is better to ignore the local conventions and do what i know in my heart is right.

Thursday - Local Witnesses

How is it possible for you to have faith while you take honour one from another and have no desire for the honour which comes from the only God? John 5

This is a very good question. We spend so much of our lives worried about people's rules and opinions that we have little time or energy to even find out what God wants. We have been given the commandment to love one another as we love ourselves. How we work that out in practical terms in each of our lives takes discernment and listening for God's voice in our hearts. Oh the inadequacy of words!! I can't say it without sounding trite.

Wed - Salvation Appearing

24: Truly I say to you, The man whose ears are open to my word and who has faith in him who sent me, has eternal life; he will not be judged, but has come from death into life. John 5

Mystical Jesus, we have the Gospel of John. There is such hope in this line. No discrimination, all are eligible for eternal life.

Tuesday -Unity

12: And by the edge of the river, on this side and on that, will come up every tree used for food, whose leaves will ever be green and its fruit will not come to an end: it will have new fruit every month, because its waters come out from the holy place: the fruit will be for food and the leaf will make well those who are ill.
Ezekiel 47

There are days that I wonder about the titles of these readings and this is one of them. The list heads it up as Unity so that is what I am using just in case someone else out there reading this has the same reading list. Their brief explanation has to do with one baptism in the Trinity. The only connection I see with that concept and the reading is that they both refer to water. Ez. is talking about a miraculous river that comes from the Holy place. Its banks hold food that never is short or goes stale and the leaves are medicinal. I suppose that in this fortunate location all will be well.