Presbymom

Luke 13:1-9 Let's just start with some honesty - there is nothing worse about religion to me than when God is used to justify a disaster. Really - did God intend for innocent children to be shot, or those going about their daily lives to be swept up in a storm having their lives abruptly ripped apart? Does God need to stoop to petty retaliation if we are misbehaving? What comfort is there to be found in looking at bad things that happen in our lives and thinking we are being punished? The wrong kind of comfort! If we need to be in control so much that we must have a 'why' to every occurance, then we are not trusting in God at all. We want for everything in our lives to be understandable by our rules and concepts of how the world works. But there is chaos, there is random misfortune, there is evil. I don't believe that God is the hand controlling any of these. From 1 Corinthians, we are told that God's ways are beyond us and God's thoughts are above us. True ...

Luke 13:31-35 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Wow -what to do with this scripture reading? Jesus derogatorily calls Herod a fox. Then he refers to himself as a hen trying to gather in her brood. When I take these pictures deeper with what they mean to me today, I do not at all get a favorable picture of either Jesus or Herod. Herod is a wily fox that uses its cunning and intelligence for power, conquest and control. Calling Herod a fox still sounds insulting today and would have been at that time as well. But then - when I look up mother hen and think about it, that imagery has morphed in our world to not at all be a favorable thing either. A mother hen is an over-protective mom using what meager intelligence she can muster to coral and heard - yes control her offspring. This type of mothering is not something that we aspire toward today as parents. Yet that same hen is sacrificial - willing to insert herself between danger and her children no matter the cost. And, here is...

Luke 4:1-13 Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day in Lent. Popular culture will be asking you 'What are you giving up for Lent?' A Facebook post by Texas Presbyterian Foundation pretty much summarizes my thoughts on that quite well - FAST from judging others, FEAST on Christ dwelling in them . So many of us get into the 'feeling' of this season but really don't stop to think what it means. Barbara Brown Taylor helps some - "'Lent' itself means 'spring' - the greening of the human soul, pruned with repentance, fertilized with fasting, spritzed with self-appraisal, mulched with prayer." I can't help but jump back to my theme from last week's transfiguration. Jesus shone brightly white, but the rest of us are an ordinary green. Perhaps this ordinary green is not so easy either! I take the words of another superstar - Kermit the Frog. "It's not easy being green. You blend in with so many ordinary things. Greening o...