Tag: Nature of the Divine
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Sundays After Pentecost, Year A, 2023 – Gospel Passage: When you do die, there will be gracious equity
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” (Matthew 20:1) It occurs to me that in many of these parables, the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to the world to come. We are given illustrations through parables of what Heaven is…
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Sundays After Pentecost, Year A, 2023 – Gospel Passage: Family is . . . Family, what ever they have done
“Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished…
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Sundays After Pentecost, Year A, 2023 – Old Testament Passage: Jeremiah is feeling the burn
“O LORD, you know; remember me and visit me, and bring down retribution for me on my persecutors. In your forbearance do not take me away; know that on your account I suffer insult.” (Jeremiah 15:15) I sought out some information about this passage, trying to understand what it conveyed about the life of the…
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Sundays After Pentecost, Year A, 2023 – Gospel Passage: The Divine brings the God-Self close to us
“Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.” (Matthew 14:22) In case you lost the thread of the gospel passage, this “immediately” was right after the feeding of the 5000 from several loaves and a few fishes, and twelve baskets of…
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Sundays After Pentecost, Year A, 2023 – Psalm Passage: The Divine’s Face is Divine: Preacher & Seeker raise praise
Preacher: “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” It is a good day to praise. While the psalmist celebrates the Lord being slow to anger, in this moment the anger of the Lord is NOT something in my life. In fact, I am feeling more of the tenderness…
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Sundays After Pentecost, Year A, 2023 – Old Testament Passage: The Divine calls through the prophet
“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Isaiah 55:1) Bring what you have. And if you do not have anything, come anyway! That’s sort of the way I feel tonight – I do not…
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Sundays After Pentecost, Year A, 2023 – Psalm Passage: The Mix of Scripture & Lived Experience Yields Inspiration; Preacher & Seeker Speak of It
Seeker: “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed,” Preacher: “O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come.” Have you been praying about anything in particular, Seeker? The psalmist, in a way, is inviting all of creation to come to the Divine in prayer.…
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Sundays After Pentecost, Year A, 2023 – Epistle Passage: The Mixed Gift of the Law on Body/Flesh & Mind/Spirit
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” (Romans 8:1 – 2) I can help but notice the pleading tone in Paul’s writing. I think I have…
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Sundays After Pentecost, Year A, 2023 – Gospel Passage: When steadiness and fickleness abide side by side
“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son…
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Sundays After Pentecost, Year A, 2023 – Old Testament Passage: When even the “different” is different
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, . . . “ (Zechariah 9:9a) They say (they being the commentators who “open” the scriptures to us “common” folk) that this passage is a foretelling of the Messiah. And I, finally, agree that…