When we are disappointed with God, with life...

Scripture: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16  • Psalm 22:23-31  • Romans 4:13-25  • Mark 8:31-38 or Mark 9:2-9 

As I read the Scripture for this week, it made me think of how fragile we are - in mind, body and spirit. Peter is rebuked by Jesus when he himself rebukes Jesus after being told that the one Peter has recognized and acknowledged to be the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel, must suffer and die. Imagine Peter's disappointment. Think about our own disappointments with God, ourselves, and others.

Why did Jesus rebuke Peter? What did Jesus say one must do to be his follower? What about our doubts and fears? Where is God in all of this? Consider The Rev. David Lose's "Disappointment with God."

Peter eventually gets it, as can we. See "Oops, Wrong Savior!," by The Rev. Michael Coffey. Upon this πέτρα (Petra - Greek for large mass of rock), Jesus built his church, and to Peter he gave the keys to the kingdom. He calls to us, and offers us the kingdom, as well. The ever-present Lord. God with us. Emmanuel. Again, what must we do to follow Jesus? "Let them deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me."

One of the lessons we learn is that it is okay to doubt, to ask God why, to tell God our frustrations, vent our anger, and cry. None of us is perfect. Things certainly don't always go the way we want them to go. See The Rev. Sharron R. Blezard's "Of Saints and Sinners." God goes before us. God suffers with us and goes with us. All the way - home.

How can we stretch our faith to reach the kingdom. See 2 Peter 5-7: For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;  and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;  and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.

 

Lent - a time to deal with enemies

Scripture: Genesis 9:8-17  • Psalm 25:1-10  • 1 Peter 3:18-22  • Mark 1:9-15

Every Lent we begin with Jesus' baptism, going into the wilderness and being tempted. What can we learn this Lent as we journey with Jesus into the wilderness, and from temptations?

Some of you may know or remember the famous saying of Pogo, Walt Kelly's cartoon possum, "We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us." Both of our authors remind us that Jesus also told us to pray for our enemies.

Who and what are your enemies? Loving our enemies isn't easy. What happens if we let our enemies get the best of us? How can we prevent our enemies from getting the best of us? See The Rev. Geoffrey Hoare's "Enemies."

Read what The Rev. Kate Matthews says about the Noah reading in Genesis, and about learning from the Psalms during Lent in her "God Loves Us," (which also includes her  Reflection on Psalm 25). She would have us share the heart of the Psalmist working through battles that we wage in our lives, calling us to take into account our prayer life, our thoughts, and actions, and how this effects our lives, our work, and the lives of others. What disciplines can we use to create within us clean hearts, and which will renew a right spirit within us?

"I saw the Light"

Scripture: 2 Kings 2:1-12  • Psalm 50:1-6  • 2 Corinthians 4:3-6  • Mark 9:2-9

A popular song is titled "I saw the Light." In "Plastic Minds and Magic Eyes," Ragan Sutterfield tells us that the common thread running through all of the Scripture this week, the last week of Epiphany, is "seeing," encouraging us to see the "incredible reality of the kingdom of God all around us," taking care not to "make tents on mountain tops" as Peter wanted to do during the Transfiguration.

In "spiritual vertigo - a reflection on the transfiguration," Fr. Rick Morley would have us get spiritually prepared so that when Jesus takes us somewhere on our journey to "blow our mind with grace and grandeur of Almighty God" we are overwhelmed, not by fear, but "with joy and wonder of all God's works. 

Finally Debra Dean Murphy brings us down to earth, as we leave the light of Epiphany and journey in Lent with Jesus to the cross, reminding us that the glory of God is revealed in the cross, and the exalted Lord is never separate from the suffering Christ. In "Light for the Journey," Murphy tells us that as ashes are placed on our foreheads with the sign of the cross, we can be transformed if we take up Christ's cross, deny ourselves, and follow him, and that we will need the Light of Jesus transformed to guide and be a companion with us on our journey.

Christ's Mission: Loving, Serving, Healing, Feeding...

Scripture: Isaiah 40:21-31  • Psalm 147:1-11, 20c  • 1 Corinthians 9:16-23  • Mark 1:29-39

In this week's gospel, Jesus, without a word, takes her hand, and "lifts up" Dorcas, Peter's mother-in-law, who has been ill. Immediately she gets up, and without a demand or request, begins serving others. She understands Jesus, his mission, and call to discipleship when the crowds, his disciples, and yes, us, misunderstand what Jesus is about.

What is Jesus all about? What are we called to do, as a church, and as individuals, all beloved of God? See The Rev. Kate Huey's "Sustaining Ministry" reflection.

"Love not expressed, love not felt," P.C. Ennis writes, "is difficult to trust....God knew the human need for nearness. Jesus is the incarnation of God's love, which makes it all the more demanding (if frightening) to realize that for some people, we are the only Jesus they will ever meet" (Feasting on the Word Year B, Vol. 1). What if your church, and the people within it, are "the only Jesus" some people will ever meet? Would they recognize him?

Dan Clendenin asks "What does prayer have to do with it?" in his "The True End of Prayer: What I Pray and Why."

Why did the disciples answer Jesus' call?

Scripture: Jonah 3:1-5, 10  • Psalm 62:5-12  • 1 Corinthians 7:29-31  • Mark 1:14-20

The gospel this week is about Jesus calling his disciples, particularly, Andrew, Peter, James and John, to become fishers of men. How is it that they dropped what they were doing, their livelihood, and family and way of life to follow Jesus?

Our authors this week look through the lens of the writer of the gospel of Mark, Paul's letter to the Corinthians, and even the Jonah's mission to the Assyrians, as well as the times in which they were written, to give us insight into why, and how, the disciples answered Jesus' call.

There is more to the term "evangelical," which comes from the Greek εὐαγγέλιον (euangélion), or "good news, although "good news" it is! See Dan Clendenin's "Evangelicals: When Labels are Libels." The urgency of getting the good news out, in God's time (καιρός - kairos) is viewed in the urgency of the time ( Χρόνος - chronos) Paul's letter and the gospel of Mark were written. The challenge is to see, believe, and act in God's time, with the love, forgiveness and compassion God showed the Ninevites in Jonah's story, and which is recognized in this week's Psalm. As this week's gospel begins, "The time is fulfilled, the  kingdom of God has come near, repent (turn around - renew your minds and thoughts and hearts), and believe in the good news. That's what grabbed the disciples, and that is what can grab you and me.

See also, Beth Scibienski's "Irresistible Grace," Sister Kim Harris' Commentary,  Exposition, and Reflection (all separate short articles), and Fr. Rick Morley's "time fulfilled - a reflection on Mark 1:14-20."

O LORD, you have searched me and known me

Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20)  • Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18  • 1 Corinthians 6:12-20  • John 1:43-51

The lessons this week are about knowing, recognizing the truth, and recognizing the presence of God in our lives. Samuel recognized God's presence and truth with Eli's help, overcame his own reservations, and told Eli God's truth, as hard as it was.

Beautiful Psalm 139 is a confession and hymn of gratitude to God who knows us all our days, knit us together in our mothers' wombs, and is still with us.

Jesus knew Nathaniel before Philip called him, as an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.

Professor Alyce M. Mackenzie helps us be aware of God's presence in our lives in "Recognizing Jesus: Reflections on John 1:43-51." The Rev. Kate Huey has a wonderful Reflection on the Scripture (especially the 139th Psalm), the dangers of self-proclaimed certitude, cautioning us not to use our own justification for judging others, and seeing the truth in God's beautiful reassurance that we are precious in his sight and magnificent examples of God's powers in creation. His presence in our lives is good news, indeed!

Baptism with the Spirit

Scripture: Genesis 1:1-5  • Psalm 29  • Acts 19:1-7  • Mark 1:4-11

Every Epiphany we consider the baptism of Jesus. This year, in "The Politics of the Individual - Mark 1:4-11,"  Alastair Roberts gives us a good geo-political look at the time Jesus was baptized, and its significance then, and now.

In "The 'Great Wind' of God," Dan Clendenin provides a good exegesis of the term for "breath" or Spirit of God, considering one of the two creation stories in Genesis, the baptism of repentance by water by John the Baptist, and baptism of the "Spirit" which descended on Jesus, and later on a group of Ephesians baptized by Paul in the name of Jesus.