Presbymom

Romans 5:1-5 How dare a scripture on endurance and suffering - one of being tempered in a pit of suffering and fire if you will - begin with words of peace and grace and conclude with love and hope? Yesterday, businesses and schools in my Texas hometown were a bit frantic and paranoid over a basic thunderstorm, and rightly so. The disasters of Oklahoma tornadoes earlier this week and the national disasters of the past few months have been more than enough to make anyone wonder where is God in all of this. But isn't that exactly where God is? In our wondering and searching and even shaking of our fists in anger. Isn't that where God is? Right beside us. But that is so hard to see for the person who lost a loved one, the person who has nothing left, the person who is unemployed and has a family looking to them for support. How do I keep my faith through evil, disaster and the misfortunes of life? Where do I see God outside of my meditations and reading - real life? Wher...

Romans 8:12-17 Acts 2:1-21 The Holy Spirit rightly plays a dominant role in our Pentecost traditions. This advocate that we have been sent is appealing and yet elusive. We are adopted into the family with all of the peace and with all of the strife. This family is not one where everything is promised to be easy. It does bring with it assurances of the peace of the Holy Spirit, but it also comes with the suspicion of drunkenness because we are not living according to the standards and expectations of the world. These men with flames dancing on their heads speaking about the deeds of Christ so that all are able to understand as if in their native tongue - how are they normal? Wouldn't we look at such a scene today and think - that is one really bizarre family? Why in the world would I want to be adopted into that? Similarly looking at the images that media gives the Christian church today - why in the world would I want to be adopted into that? What does it mean to be adopt...

John 14:15-27 Given all of the options for this week, why do I feel myself pulled back again and again to this lectionary text? Isn't this just a pullout from an exceedingly wordy discourse in John? We seldom hear Jesus go on and on in sermon style. Rather than cutting to the chase or telling a neat parable, that is what these verses of John seem to do. But they contain so many nuggets. The words from this scripture have found their way into many things as words of comfort, frequently in funerals to comfort the bereaved. But while this scripture promises peace and comfort, it goes beyond that as well. As a mother of two, I remember looking back to when I was pregnant with my second child. How am I going to find enough love, time and energy for another? My heart is surely already filled to bursting with my husband and daughter. Pete and I semed to spend hours just staring into the amazing eyes of our daughter when she was first-born. Will I be able to love another child as much?...

John 10:22-30 Interesting that the Jews in the Gospel According to John should be saying exactly the same thing so many of us today are thinking. Why can't Jesus just tell them clearly and succinctly that He is the messiah? He says in his reponse in verse 25 that he has said this, but for the life of me, I don't know where it was ever stated that clearly. Jesus speaks to us in parables and through the way he lived his life. Jesus showed us repeatedly and often but doens't use the clearcut statement. Messy thing faith. No wonder so many of us start trying to map out things that the Bible says to specifics in the world today and in history. As a former computer programmer, wouldn't life be grand if it were a series of clearcut if/then statements? There would be no ugly terrorist attacks without warning or explanation. Death would happen in its expected time and never too early. I have heard so many people this week falling back to the Psalms - even did so myself. ...

John 21:1-19 Breathing a sigh of relief last week I set about cleaning my desk to find the surface again, catching up on e-mails, cleaning laundry, shopping for food to actually feed my kids something other than fast food. Pastors are probably worse than anyone else in getting so caught up in Holy Week that everything else goes on hold. And, perhaps rightly, this week should get special attention and hold a prime real estate in our priorities for the year. Yet, here I am back in my routine. Much like those disciples, when all else fails - it's back to the norm. The disciples had trouble recognizing Jesus on his first two appearances, but he spoke to them and charged them and sent them out into the world with the power of the Holy Spirit in John chapter 20 verse 21. This week, we are in the very next scene. Instead of doing something profound, inspiring and motivational to change the world, we find the disciples fishing. Much like me, and I would guess many of you, afte...

John 20:1-18 Why do we as pastors look at this week and scratch our heads? Perhaps it is the challenge of saying something 'new' at the biggest Holy Day of services in our year. Seasoned pastors struggle not to repeat, huh? Weird, but there it is. Even our Bible study this morning had some awkward pauses of 'what to study'. Don't we deal with this same story every year? Leave it to the inspiration of an honest friend in our midst to start the conversation rolling. Not - what new can we say, but - how do we really understand resurrection? And, more importantly, what does it mean to us? Okay - so the way she worded the question was, "My friend is an intellectual who just can't believe in a bodily resurrection, but she still identifies herself as a Christian. How do we see this? Symbolically, literally? Are you still a Christian if you don't believe in bodily resurrection?" There was a collective sigh in the room as 20 people began to struggle w...

Luke 11-32 Studying this text in various groups this week has allowed me to glimpse a shared theme of family expectations. Family is so hard and so vital! One of the main cornerstones of my faith is koinonia - relationship. The tangled web of interrelatedness among friends and family and our connectedness to God. And, isn't that what we are all about as Christians anyway? The complex way we influence each other in biological families is just the tip of the iceberg as we extend that to our church families and the dynamics within the church. How do we relate, interact, love and worship together? Teaching confirmation last night, one of the youth asked for clarification on grace and what it means. Struggling with that with her and then continuing on my own meditations has led to some insight on family. I explained to her that an easy illustration comes to us from Romans 6 - we can't be sin free. But that does not give us carte blanche to go about lives like we want relyin...