Blog question for week following May 24, 2009

Please read Philippians 2, the great hymn of servanthood shared by the apostle Paul. Our preacher of the day was Beverly Hovenkamp, whose 20 years of ordained ministry we celebrated today. Beverly invited us to embrace humility, our gifts and limitations in our respective lives and ministies; and she challenged us to reach beyond ourselves as a congregation. During one part of her sermon, Beverly mentioned the empowering work of women theologians who recognize that too often women are the ones called on to submit.

I am wondering if this is not a good week to ask a question regarding gender in our culture. What challenges do women in particular face in home, work, and community? What role does humility play for them? I will not pretend to have an answer.

Blog question for the week following May 17, 2009

Our Scripture lessons speak of love: John 15:12-17 and 1st John 5:1-6. This is not romantic love, or the love of friendship or for a pet, but the love of God that fulfills and makes durable every human love. Although always with us by the power of God's Holy Spirit, this love is often observed by us in the exceptional moments of life, e.g. when we find the power to forgive, or let go, or make a sacrifice.

Begin by seeing yourself being submerged in the cold waters of baptism. You are held down; all around you is water, bubbles rising, shimmering reflections, light. You are bathed in God's love, you are dying into it. Suddenly you are yanked out, cold air strikes you! Love remains - you are still sopping wet and there is no means to get dry - but now you are experiencing God's love in a new life.

You have drowned all except for love. Equipped only with love, how will you love and who will you love? Recall that even animals love their own kin and we humans love our friends: But how will you love as God loves?

Blog Question for the week following May 10, 2009

Last Sunday we heard selections from the Messiah sung and played by our musicians, and hence no blog question arose. I could not find a question that matched the beauty of our worship experience.

This week George Minot is preaching from John 15:1-11. Read this passage three times, and imagine Jesus saying these words to you sitting at the dinner table. You have grapes in one hand, and a glass of wine in the other: His words hit you between the eyes. What do you think? What do you feel? What does "abiding in his love" mean? What does it mean to be clean and how do you bear fruit? Does this have any relationship to the forgiveness explored after April 26? Can God love through us people that we cannot love on our own if we try to "go there (as in, please don't go there)?" Some passages invite something more than intellectual wrestling or emotional reflection. They take us . . .