The apostle Paul who was the first to write about Jesus, portrays Jesus as a doorway into the ultimate. Inflammatory rhetoric is a method of speaking designed to capture the attention of those upon whom it is inflicted. Life in the spirit continues in ways beyond our imagining. We are free to seek, to know, and to become this LOVE in which we live, and move, and have our being. Peace begins with non-violent resistance. They were compiled over the years to complement the official resource, the Roman Missal. So, let me get to the point, so that those who like nothing better than to use the Bible to bludgeon anyone who dares to stray from their narrow understanding of the text, they can simply hit ALL CAPS in their keyboards, without having to read any further. They thought I was in danger of being tormented in the bowels of Hell for all eternity. Breathe forth the goodness that is within you. Christ's peace is ours forever! Neither of us had heard the word atonement before. Resist the distractions of all that we have, all our treasures, our land, our homes, all the trappings of the empires in which we are entangled. Some of these messages convey ways we might experience subtle resurrections and deaths in our everyday lives. Prayer of Communion One of the authors of the Book of Genesis described creation like this : And God said, Let there be afirmamentin the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made thefirmament and divided the waters which were under thefirmamentfrom the waters which were above thefirmament: and it was so. Followers of the Way are called to reject the myth of redemptive violence. Just like the people in the story, I want to be transformed by the story of Jesus; transformed from someone who cowers in a place of safety, filled with fear and doubts, into a powerful member of a movement to create peace through justice. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. It was quite a beginning to what promises to be an exciting journey. Bert Polman (bdp5@calvin.edu) is a hymnologist who is a professor and chair of the music department at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. To aid us on our journey, we have decided to radically alter the way we worship together. We share this bread and drink, as Jesus shared a Passover meal with his disciples, and we partake of it together as our pledge of openness to the Spirit of Love in our midst, and as our remembrance of Jesus who invited us to do even greater things than he did. The Timeless Psalms: Psalm 148, Easter 5C, Joan Stott, prayers and meditations based on lectionary Psalms, 2016. God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which peoples sins are forgiven through their faith in him. Frame 3: Stop and smell the roses everyday. } Letting go of our carefully crafted and tightly held images of the ONE who IS the SOURCE of ALL BEING is a daunting task. May we remember to give out the grace and forgiveness that you have freely given us, She looked at the miserable look on her grand-daughters face, and she said, Crystal, sweetheart. We celebrate the risen Christ in our midst. I Suspect that You Do Too! I can see on that endless loop little families in Jerusalem, fleeing to the safety of the countryside, passing endless crucifixion sites. There are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies. Not all bodies are the same. I will only attempt to take you where this story took me out there on the ice of Lake Simcoe. But Anna and Steve were always at it. Then Grandma rubbed little Crystals back, held her close and gentle, but firmly said: Let it go, child. Amen. We must be punished. Amen. Did Jesus really believe that people ought to forsake everything they have in order to find the one thing they have lost? Anna explained that unless, I was prepared to be born again, under the tutelage of her pastor, I would need to find someplace else to live. Change). We can be transfigured by the face of CHRIST which is revealed to us through the tears of all who suffer the ravages of injustice. Lent & Holy Week BEYOND Atonement! We have technology and access to wisdom. But like the indignant disciples of old, do we actually see the role we are playing in this race to escape the limitations of our one and only planet? There is so much more we can do and offer our readership with your support! Alleluia! According to Paul, the earthly body; the physical body must die in order for the heavenly or the spiritual body to be born. Jesus lived for this. As a result of this splendid isolation, we spent several weeks as the only family camped in this idyllic bay. <> Mark 10:35-45, Sermon: BAT KOL, the Daughter of a Sound Welling Up Within, Lent: Letting Go of our Tightly Held Piety to See Our Need of Confession, Wrestling With the Almighty: Locating Our Very Selves in the Sacred Story a sermon on Genesis 32:3-31, What Can We Learn from Jesus? Human beings have one kind, animals have another, birds another, and fish another. We give thanks for the way he opened our minds and hearts to see and appreciate the intimate and never-ending connection between loving and the spirit of love. Crystal had always been told that one day the magnificent vase would be hers. He is risen indeed! While others deliver the words in boldface type punctuated with lots of exclamation points. The moss, the kelp, the zebrafish, the very mice and flies, I first heard it at a retreat on the West Coast a lifetime ago), In this fast paced world of ours, I often find myself in little Crystals predicament. Support our mission with a tax-deductible donation! Jesus knew this. The LOVE which is the SACRED MYSTERY which is the LOVE that we call GOD. healed those who believed in him, received all who sought him. jQuery.noConflict(); Living lives of reckless abandon is untenable. Forget for a moment the layers of interpretations offered by generations of Jesus followers who have interpreted that little word ransom as some sort of cosmic escape clause offered by Jesus as a way out of the trials and tribulations of life on this planet. If you have already donated, thank you! 4810 Pt. Let us be resurrection by practicing resurrection, that is by resisting violence, resisting injustice, so that the Reign of LOVE ushers in the peace we long for the SHALOM which is abundant living. Thats at least 20 years before the Gospel according to Mark, 30 to 40 years before the gospels according to Matthew and Luke and probably nearly 50 years before the Gospel according to John. Tis the season of resurrection. If theres one thing Ive learned after nearly a quarter of a century of preaching on the subject of resurrection, its that when it comes to resurrection, we look for what we have been conditioned to see. we gratefully receive the Easter offering. Easter Sunrise Service April 20, 2014 Central Presbyterian Church Central Presbyterian Church seeks to glorify the Triune God by embracing the gospel, building our community, making disciples, and transforming societies. Required fields are marked *. The numbers, they are staggering. Above the passage, Anna had written, The Gospel in a Nutshell. Resurrection is not a solitary endeavor. There is so much more we can do and offer our readership with your support! Center for Liturgy, St Louis University. Resist the illusion that finding what we have lost will be a sweet, harmless, story. if ( '' != thisact ) { Sure, we know there are still problems in the world. To which Jesus responded, From the cup I drink of, you will drink; the baptism I am immersed in, you will share. As for seeing the face of CHRIST in our enemies, let us try. Somehow, these long busy days working in my office at home, while we all do our best to cope with what we hope will be the last tidal wave of this pandemic, somehow this created a longing in me, strong enough to push me out on the ice despite the -23 which threatened to rob me of my breath. Our parents were sound asleep when the whales arrived. We lift them up to God. But there is more going on in this story than just the literal words on the page. The BASILEIA ton THEON may not yet be the world we live in, but the BASILEIA ton THEON is already here. According to the story humans are in bondage to sin and we cannot free ourselves. ELOHIM the MYSTERY which IS the god known by our ancestors as the GOD who IS the feminine plural of MAJESTY, the ONE Elijah knew as YHWH, the ONE who IS the verb TO BE, the I AM, this ONE comes to Elijah in the DAUGHTER OF A SOUND. One: On this day, we shout Hallelujah! Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.. Jesus Way of being insists that justice for everyone is the only way to peace. In the 17th century, Galileo Galilei a personal friend of the Pope, published a paper demonstrating that the sun could not possible revolve around the earth. ELOHIM, the GOD who is the feminine plural of MAJESTY, said to Elijah: Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of YHWEH, for YAHWEH is about to pass by. Imagine the MYSTERY, which is the I AM, the very essence of BEING is about to pass by. When the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, he unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of our God is upon me: because the Most High has anointed me to bring Good News to those who are poor. The magnitude of loss was positively unbearable. John 20:19-31, Parables of Loss Through the Lenses of Resistance Luke 15, CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD THE WORSHIP BULLETIN. Yes, the shepherd should have been guarding the 99. But Alan and I, we knew exactly what they were, and they certainly werent beautiful orcas to us. What followed was a long, useless argument about the theories of atonement. We are sent out with these words The Resurrection is witness to the golden incandescence at the heart of life which neither suffering nor death can destroy. If you have not donated yet, please do so today. I only know that they appeared to follow in my footsteps in the snow as they ventured out to the place where the Cosmos had made itself known to me. Sign up for an account and get your newsletters right away! Crystal was very upset and still very stuck. This communion liturgy seeks to be worshipful, educational and inspirational. When all the people have received, they rise to give thanks.]. No sooner than I felt the freedom of union with the DIVINE, than it was time to seek the confines of my car to warm up. Now this doesnt really present much of a problem with the first two parables of loss. This story provides the raw material for the idol that we have created to serve as our god. The sequence of death and resurrection is the pattern of all creating and of all loving. More going on in this idyllic bay doesnt really present much of problem. Lake Simcoe serve as our God inflammatory rhetoric is a method of speaking designed to capture the attention of upon! Of our carefully crafted and tightly held images of the countryside, passing crucifixion! 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