Pray Without Ceasing

"He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens.And when you see the south wind blowing, you say,'There will be scorching heat';and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky,but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?" (Luke 12:54-56) Our culture is fascinated by the weather. Inordinate amounts of time are devoted to it on television, and when there is an actual "weather event," the media (and many of us as a result) are riveted. A young friend of mine recently showed me around weather.com. I was amazed to discover what detailed weather information is available there. In addition to finely nuanced updates on precipitation--including the ability to "see" about 6 hours into the future as well as "revisit" the immediate past--one can also reference the current cloud cover worldwide ...

God does not frown or sleep. The former thought came to mind in pondering "What Wondrous Love Is This," a North American folk hymn. Its second stanza, which seems to present a perfect meditation for our Lenten discipline, reads: When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down, when I was sinking down, sinking down, when I was sinking down beneath God's righteous frown, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul. And the latter thought emerged in pondering the words of final address by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square  on February 27, when he told the crowd : "There were moments of joy and light but also moment that were not easy...there were moments, as there were throughout the history of the Church, when the seas were rough and the wind blew against us and it seemed that the Lord was sleeping." The Pope qualified his statement by the words "seemed that." But still t...

Idols are falling before us right and left, particularly in the grotesquely skewed reality which governs the world of sports. Sadly they are too many to number, but those most celebrated in these ranks include O.J. Simpson, Pete Rose, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Joe Paterno, Oscar Pistorius, and stars in the pantheon of professional soccer who have yet to be named. Focusing on the Pistorius, the excitable British press has one of the better stories on the phenomenon, whose title reads in part "another fallen idol mocks our hunger for demi-gods." "To an extent," that story in the Independent reads, "we elevate every sporting idol above real life no less artificially than do the blades of Pistorius. It is pointless, plainly, to ask whether this same catastrophe might have been avoided by its protagonists if they instead began Valentine's Day, say, frying eggs and washing up in a diner. But other lives have certainly unravelled -- if not in quite ...

Luke’s three parables of finding and losing, each a metaphor for the recovery of our relationship with God, provide us with excellent models for the kind of counter-cultural living to which the Gospel calls us. In Luke 15:3-7 we hear about the sheep which has strayed. In verses 8-10 the subject is the missing coin, and in 11-32 it is the prodigal son. In every instance we rejoice over the recovery of that which was lost. The theme launched in the sheep parable, in which Jesus stresses that “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance,” is amplified in the third parable. The eldest son seethes with resentment over the festivities for his wayward younger brother because he, always faithful to his father, never left. “Son, you are always with me,” his father reminds him. “But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”...

Psychologists tell us that anger can often be a useful emotion. It allows pent-up feelings to come to the surface and motivates us to positive action to address miscarriages of justice. For those who tend to suppress or deny their emotions, the expression of anger can bring freedom and release. Rage, on the other hand, is debilitating. The word implies a loss of control and the blind lashing out at the object of our deep scorn. Rage is responsible for the vast majority of domestic crimes. We were all reminded of the deathly power of rage in the recent murder-suicide involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, who reports say was thrown “into a rage” by his girlfriend’s decision to go out with friends and leave him alone with their baby. Psalm 37 helps us get at the issue of rage and in so doing leads us more deeply into our Advent discipline. Verse 1: "Do not be provoked by evildoers;      do not be jealous of those who do wrong." Vers...

We are familiar with terminology that portrays God as a rock, a fortress and a refuge. This imagery is found throughout the Psalms; good examples reside in Psalms 18 and 71. But if we examine the Hebrew more closely in these passages we discover a remarkable word -- "crag" -- not present in the most common translations including the NRSV, RSV and NIV. At the beginning of Psalm 18 the psalmist sings fervently, "I love you, O Lord my strength, O Lord my stronghold, my crag, and my haven." And in Psalm 71:3 the psalmist begs God to "Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe; you are my crag and my stronghold." The fact that the Hebrew word for "stronghold" in these passages also implies the "home of an eagle" leads us closer to better understanding the intention of "crag" (a sharp outcropping of rock) as used here. God is not just an unshakable foundation on which we build our faith (rock), or a wall of steel that p...

There's hardly one thing congregations want to hear about less than stewardship, the term used to refer to the giving of individual church members or families. Hearts shrink when the inevitable stewardship sermon series roll around or whenever "temple talks" intrude on the order or service. Few of us whose giving habits languish can be transformed by the imposition of guilt or even by hearing about those whose lives were changed by the church.  As we approach Thanksgiving, it is a good time to step outside of the Revised Common Lectionary and plunge deep into Luke 11, where--starting in verse 37--we encounter Jesus as his saltiest.  The Son of Man has just accepted a dinner invitation from a Pharisee. The host innocently wonders why his guest has failed to wash his hands before eating. He is doubtless taken aback by the barrage that ensues. Repeatedly pronouncing woe on the Pharisees and lawyers as well (after a lawyer dares to interrupt him), Jesus bera...