Category: meditations
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Atone-over
IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH’s Book of Common Prayer (1979), as the priest breaks the consecrated bread, is sung the Fraction Anthem. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast.” John the Baptist, of course, refers to Christ as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”…
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Excursus: Yoke
IN JESUS’ WORLD, righteousness is man’s answer to the Torah, acceptance of the whole of God’s will, the bearing of the ‘yoke of God’s kingdom,’ as one formulation had it.” (Jesus of Nazareth p 17) Jesus says “Take my yoke upon you” seemingly out of the blue. But it is part of a wider rabbinic…
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7LW: Unneeded Substitution
Today you will be with me in Paradise. TODAY WAS A BIT of a rough one for me: it began at 4AM with the news that my mom was in the hospital (but somewhat ok as compared to last night). Getting to work I was alerted to the news that one of seven speakers I…
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7LW: שמע
Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. WITHIN THE JEWISH TRADITION the last prayer one says before dying is called the Shema (or Sh’ma) : שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ יי אֶחָֽד Hear, Israel, the Lord our God: the Lord is one. The recitation of this line of scripture, along with some other passages of…
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7LW: What’s Finished?
This essay is an edited version of last year’s post. I seem to be. on the same track this year. It is finished. Perelandra Is CS Lewis’ brilliant and engaging meditation on the Fall. It takes place on Venus in the 1940s where God is making a new race of persons and they are again…
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7LW: MOAR
I thirst. T HIS SIMPLE REQUEST of Jesus pulls many into theological arabesques. What is Jesus thristing for? For our faith! For our love! For souls to heal and bring to heaven! None of that is in the text, of course: they arise from meditation on the text as does this essay. Jesus, having hung…
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7LW: Woman
Woman, behold your son.Behold Your Mother. WE HAD A GUEST show up at our homeless ministry. It was her first time. She seemed a little out of it. She seemed more than a little confused. We fed her. Then we closed our doors, as we do at a certain time, and folks left. Guests usually…
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7LW: Feelings
My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken me. CAN GOD FORSAKE HIMSELF or can he be forsaken by himself? It always seems that this verse gets called out to prove that Jesus didn’t see himself as God – or that the earliest Christians didn’t see him as God. Then, sometimes, this verse gets thrown…
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7LW: Messy
Behold Your Mother. BY WAY OF disclaimer, this admission: Pope Francis has stepped out to consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and this seems to me a good thing. As the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, the whole world is his See, and he can make Eucharist with all that…
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7LW: Fire and Water
Today you will be with me in Paradise. TODAY.How hard it is to imagine this. Today in paradise. Sometime in the distant future or, perhaps, sometime in the distant past, certainly. But today? Hardly. Of course, the Wise Thief is about to die, so that makes sense, right? Your going to die and you’ll be…
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7LW: Forgive
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. FORGIVENESS is a full-circle claim. We know this from “forgive us as we forgive others.” Certainly, we wrestle with that. It is hard. Resentments, parents, bullies in school, coworkers, backstabbing, etc. How we navigate forgiveness is an ongoing process of grace: Christianity is only always…
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The Oneness of God
The readings for the 31st Sunday Tempus per Annum (Year B): – Deuteronomy 6:2-6 – Hebrews 7:23-28 – Mark 12:28b-34 שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְיְ אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְיְ אֶחָֽד Hear Israel the Lord Our God, the Lord is One. (Please note that LORD indicates the divine name was used in the Hebrew text.) Reading the Gospel we are…
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Eros Envisioned Beatifically
Several things presented themselves to your host this morning for contemplation and synthesis. They span several decades in terms of life experience, wrapping themselves around a playlist called “sacred heart”, wherein we avoid the sentimentality of many “Jesus is my boyfriend” praise and worship songs by going right for the eroticism of popular love songs.…
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Reflection on Balaam’s Praise
מַה טֹּבוּ אֹהָלֶיךָ, יַעֲקֹב; מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶיךָ, יִשְׂרָאֵל How fair are your tents, 0 Jacob! How fair your dwellings, Israel! – Numbers 24:5 (Jerusalem Bible, 1968) The chant “Ma Tovu, Ohehlecha Yacov” is often used at the beginning of the Friday Evening synagogue service. The congregation chants slowly and gently, as if chewing on a text for…
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Psalm 7×7
Sicut Patres Nostri– of Huw, A Lament sitting on the dock of the Bay AS OUR FATHERS before usSo we sit by the watersAs by Babylon of oldby the waters of the BayDo you remember us, Lord? The Saints have told usOf your faithfulness, your loveYour powerYou came with them to defeat their enemiesYou swept…
Orthoparadoxy 