The Adventurous Lectionary – Pentecost 12 – September 1, 2019 Jeremiah 2:4-13; Psalm 81:1,10-16; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16.; Luke14:1, 7-14 As summer ends, the political season is heating up, and invectives come forth from the White House on what seems like an hourly basis. The nation seems to have no clear direction and no rational domestic or national strategies appear to be in place. The body politic is fragile and in danger of collapse. Church life also takes on a renewed... Read more
As of August 20, 2019, Greta Thunberg is seven days into her solar power voyage across from Sweden to New York. She chose to sail rather than fly as a sign of her commitment to respond to climate change, in good measure, caused by carbon emissions. No luxury yacht, Thunberg is traveling simply and purposefully on her zero-carbon vessel. Only sixteen, Greta Thunberg is an image of hope for many of us half a century older than her. The world... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – Pentecost 11 – August 25, 2019 Jeremiah 1:4-10 Psalm 71:1-6 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13:10-17 This week, we ponder God’s providential love that breaks through every barrier. God is willing to give us more than we can ask or imagine. We need to open our hands to receive the fullness of divine blessing for ourselves and others. Once again, we are invited to experience a deeper naturalism, that embraces mysticism and healing as spiritual dimensions emerging from... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost – August 18, 2019 Isaiah 5:1-7 Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19 Hebrews 11:29-12:2 Luke 12:49-56 Two weeks after El Paso and Dayton, what are we to do with this week’s readings? Can texts over two thousand years old speak to our current national waywardness? Isaiah speaks of the land being overrun by enemies due the impact of injustice, causing God to withdraw God’s protective care. Jesus speaks of division among those who disagree... Read more
“Cleansing the Doors of Perception: A Review of Michael Pollan’s ‘How to Change Your Mind’” William Blake and, later Aldous Huxley, proclaimed that if we could “cleanse the doors of perception, we would see everything as it is – infinite.” We live in a glorious, amazing, awesome, and awe-full world in which, as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel averred, radical amazement is the primary spiritual response. Michael Pollan’s personal and historical journey through the renaissance of psychedelics, especially in the medical... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost – August 11, 2019 Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:22-30 Get your spiritual GPS on track. Synchronize and calibrate your time pieces. Get your house in order and your values in line. The time is coming when values and actions, our relationship with God and neighbor, will go trump financial success, secular power, or material consumption. God invites us to be the change we want to... Read more
I child from our congregation recently noted, “To the aliens, we are aliens.” This child was speaking of extraterrestrials, but their words seemed apropos to these days of government-sanctioned race baiting and child separation. I think of myself as normal. After all, most days my life goes on effortlessly, as one of those often described as privileged, law-abiding, and socially responsible. I’m a citizen of the USA. This is my home I belong here. No one looks at me as... Read more
Can you be both a mystic and a social activist? Can you hold a progressive, activist, theology, and be a contemplative? Can you be both heavenly minded and earthly good? The way of Jesus and his mystic followers transcends the polarities of activism and contemplation, inner journey and outer activity. Jesus’ path is both personal and social. Jesus’ embodied a prophetic spirituality reflected in his welcome of the marginalized, affirmation of women, expansion of the scope of salvation and ethical... Read more
The Adventurous Lectionary – The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – August 4, 2019 Hosea 11:1-11 Psalm 107:1-9, 43 Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 12:13-21 Is God apathetic or passionate? Is God beyond concern for this world and its waywardness or does God have skin in the game? Does God view our human joys and sorrow as an observer, “from a distance,” or is God the “fellow sufferer who understands?” Abraham Joshua Heschel asserts that the prophet’s passion is energized by her or... Read more
Several times this week, I’ve seen Facebook posts or shared articles asserting that God chose Donald Trump as our president and implying that challenging Trump either on policy or character goes against God’s plan for the USA. In 2000 and 2004, I saw similar articles describing the divine anointing of George W. Bush as the USA president and asserting that opposition to “W” would be opposition to God. I’ve seen this mantra recited from conservative Christian leaders as well. Ironically,... Read more
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