Apr 2010
Bishop Dan's Appeal for At-Risk Youth
30/Apr/2010 20:45 Filed in: Information
First, I want to thank many of you for your generosity and hard work in raising the money for our Galilee Camp for At Risk Youth. Read More...
0 Comments
Our reading this week from the book of Acts is a redundancy.
29/Apr/2010 20:41 Filed in: Inspiration
Luke tells us again the story he just told in chapter 10: Peter has a vision that
breaks open his thinking about what is acceptable to God, Cornelius has a
vision that leads him to Peter, and a whole Gentile family comes to know
the saving power of God’s grace in Christ. Read More...
breaks open his thinking about what is acceptable to God, Cornelius has a
vision that leads him to Peter, and a whole Gentile family comes to know
the saving power of God’s grace in Christ. Read More...
God who made the stars, galaxies, suns and this fragile earth
22/Apr/2010 20:55 Filed in: Inspiration
To think that our God will wipe away the tears of those who come out of the great ordeal is an awesome thought. Humbling. Read More...
‘Lots going on in the readings this week: Paul gets converted from persecutor to proclaimer…
15/Apr/2010 22:32 Filed in: Inspiration
‘Lots going on in the readings this week: Paul gets converted from persecutor to proclaimer… Every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea sings… Jesus appears to Peter and others, filling their nets, feeding them, and claiming Peter in thrice-repeated connection…
Read More...
Read More...
I wonder if they winced. The other disciples.
08/Apr/2010 15:07 Filed in: Inspiration
I wonder if they winced. The other disciples. There they were in the upper room, the doors closed when Jesus appeared again. “Peace.” Read More...
‘All things are lawful’, but not all things are beneficial.
01/Apr/2010 22:24 Filed in: Inspiration
April 1, 2010 -- Maundy Thursday
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
23 ‘All things are lawful’, but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful’, but not all things build up. 24Do not seek your own advantage, but that of others. 25Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience, 26for ‘the earth and its fullness are the Lord’s.’
Reflection:
I don’t receive commandments very well. I tend to be a do-it-my-own-way sort of gal who wants to know the reason for something before I obey an order.
But this day is about commandment. Maundy Thursday, from the Latin mandatum, “command.” Jesus commands us to remember what he did and who he was and how he was among us. “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Paul reminds us what we know.
So I’ll go to church today and participate in the liturgy of Maundy Thursday. There will be prayers, scripture readings, preaching, foot washing, Holy Communion … and then the stripping away of the accoutrements of our worship.
At the end of the service, everything that we can carry will be removed from front of the sanctuary. And the bare altar will be washed and oiled in semi-darkness. Then I’ll walk out silently on my clean, bare feet – a powerful stop to an important liturgy.
Maundy Thursday is the start of the Triduum, the three days of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. The stripping of the altar is our liturgical way of acknowledging the emptiness in which Jesus made his sacrifice.
It calls me up short, this stark halt in the liturgy. It gets my attention. By God’s grace, the richness and starkness of the Maundy Thursday liturgy invite me to ponder the depth to which I must reach if I am to obey the commandment to love. I must empty myself of everything and trust in the sufficiency of God.
O Jesus, I want to follow your commandment to love… Humble and strengthen me. Amen.
Helen McPeak, struggler
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
23 ‘All things are lawful’, but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful’, but not all things build up. 24Do not seek your own advantage, but that of others. 25Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience, 26for ‘the earth and its fullness are the Lord’s.’
Reflection:
I don’t receive commandments very well. I tend to be a do-it-my-own-way sort of gal who wants to know the reason for something before I obey an order.
But this day is about commandment. Maundy Thursday, from the Latin mandatum, “command.” Jesus commands us to remember what he did and who he was and how he was among us. “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Paul reminds us what we know.
So I’ll go to church today and participate in the liturgy of Maundy Thursday. There will be prayers, scripture readings, preaching, foot washing, Holy Communion … and then the stripping away of the accoutrements of our worship.
At the end of the service, everything that we can carry will be removed from front of the sanctuary. And the bare altar will be washed and oiled in semi-darkness. Then I’ll walk out silently on my clean, bare feet – a powerful stop to an important liturgy.
Maundy Thursday is the start of the Triduum, the three days of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. The stripping of the altar is our liturgical way of acknowledging the emptiness in which Jesus made his sacrifice.
It calls me up short, this stark halt in the liturgy. It gets my attention. By God’s grace, the richness and starkness of the Maundy Thursday liturgy invite me to ponder the depth to which I must reach if I am to obey the commandment to love. I must empty myself of everything and trust in the sufficiency of God.
O Jesus, I want to follow your commandment to love… Humble and strengthen me. Amen.
Helen McPeak, struggler