Theological Horizons Blog

Easter: Resurrection Morning!

Karen Marsh — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:35:00 +0000

Christ is risen: alleluia! alleluia!
Christos aneste: alleluia! alleluia!

You have risen, O Christ!
Let the gospel trumpets speak,
and the news, as of holy fire,
burning and flaming and inextinguishable,
run to the ends of the earth!

You have risen, O Christ!
Let all creation greet the good news with jubilant shout,
for its redemption has come, the long night is past,
the Saviour lives, and rides and reigns in triumph,
now and to the ages of ages.

Blessed are you, God of love and glory,
you gave us your very self in Jesus.
By your great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope
by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

--Jim Cotter in Prayer at Day's Dawning

on Palm Sunday, the sixth Sunday in Lent

Karen Marsh — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:14:00 +0000

“The crowds who went in front of him and those who followed behind were all shouting: Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heavens!” Matthew 21:9

Christ on a Donkey, in the Augustiner Museum in Freiburg, is one of the most moving Christ figures I know…

As he rides into Jerusalem surrounded by people shouting “hosanna,” “cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in his path,” (Matt. 21:8) Jesus appears completely concentrated on something else. He does not look at the excited crowd. He does not wave. He sees beyond all the noise and movement to what is ahead of him: an agonizing journey of betrayal, torture, crucifixion, and death….There is a deep awareness of the unspeakable pain to be suffered, but also a strong determination to do God’s will. Above all, there is love, an endless, deep and far-reaching love born from an unbreakable intimacy with God and reaching out to all people, wherever they are, were, or will be. There is nothing that he does not fully know. There is nobody whom he does not fully love.

Every time I look at this Christ on the donkey, I am reminded again that I am seen by him with all my sins, guilt, and shame and loved with all his forgiveness, mercy and compassion. Just being with him in the Augustiner Museum is a prayer. I look and look and look, and I know that he sees the depths of my heart; I do not have to be afraid.

--Henri Nouwen, from the Road to Daybreak

in the Wilderness: the fifth Sunday of Lent

Karen Marsh — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:26:00 +0000

We know by a kind of instinct that peace lies in the heart of darkness --in the wilderness of soul. Something prompts us to keep still, to trust in God, to be quiet and to listen for God’s voice.

Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation.

Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness,
so may we know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

With friends: the fourth Sunday in Lent

Karen Marsh — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:14:00 +0000

Over the past weeks, we've explored silence, fasting and fixed hour prayer as ways to bring our attention to God, to become more available to God's transformative action in our lives. Encounters with God in solitude bring with them precious gifts.

Still, spiritual transformation is not a solo event. We all need friends to encourage, support and speak the truth to us. Without their authentic voices, we may never see who we are. The discipline of walking the spiritual journey in the company of others is at the heart of Jesus' model for discipleship. What role have others played in your own life? Tell us your story. Comment below!

Christ in Community: insight from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"God has put this Word into the mouth of others in order that it may be communicated to us. When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find his living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's Word to him. He needs again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth.

He needs a brother as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain; his brother's is sure." Life Together

Pray the day: the third Sunday in Lent

Karen Marsh — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:26:00 +0000

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour or that one is what we are doing. A schedule defends us from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time." --Annie Dillard

"It is a paradox of human life that in worship, as in human love, it is in the routine and the everyday that we find the possibilities for the greatest transformation."
--Kathleen Norris

What roles do routine and schedule play in your spiritual life?

Have you had any experience with Praying the Divine Hours or with a consistent practice of morning and evening prayer? What was that like?

Your comments on these questions--or anything related to your Lenten days--are most welcome! To receive the Theological Horizons email, "Pray the Day: the Third Sunday in Lent" make your request by email: info@theologicalhorizons.org

Hungry for God: the second Sunday in Lent

Karen Marsh — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:30:00 +0000

"In a more tangible, visceral way than any other spiritual discipline, fasting reveals our excessive attachments and the assumptions that lie behind them. Food is necessary to life, but we have made it more necessary than God. How often have we neglected to remember God's presence when we would never consider neglecting to eat! Fasting brings us face to face with how we put the material world ahead of its spiritual source.

"Perhaps we can see, then, that the discipline of fasting has to do with the critical dynamic of accepting those limits which are life-restoring. Our culture would seduce us into believing that we can have it all, do it all, and (even more preposterous!) that we deserve it all. Yet in refusing to accept limits on our consumption or activity, we perpetuate a death-dealing dynamic in the world. That is why the discipline of fasting is so profoundly important today."

---Marjorie Thompson in Soul Feast

What is your own understanding of fasting? What has been your experience? Your comments are most welcome!

Be Still: on the first Sunday of Lent

Karen Marsh — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:59:00 +0000

Word

I, who live by words, am wordless when
I try my words in prayer. All language turns
To silence. Prayer will take my words and then
Reveal their emptiness. The stilled voice learns
To hold its peace, to listen with the heart
To silence that is joy, is adoration.
The self is shattered, all words torn apart
In this strange patterned time of contemplation
That, in time, breaks time, breaks words, breaks me,
And then, in silence, leaves me healed and mended.
I leave, returned to language, for I see
Through words, even when all words are ended.
I, who live by words, am wordless when
I turn me to the Word to pray. Amen.

--Madeleine L'Engle from The Weathered Heart

Your response is most welcome! Click on "comments" below...
Here's more for your reflections:

Silence in the Christian Tradition

Nothing is so like God as silence.
— Meister Eckhart

Silence is God's first language; everything else is a poor translation. In order to hear that language, we must learn to be still and to rest in God.
— Thomas Keating

Let me rest in Your will and be silent. Then the light of Your joy will warm my life. Its fire will burn in my heart and shine for Your glory. This is what I live for. Amen, amen.
— Thomas Merton

Silence will illuminate you in God...
and deliver you from phantoms of ignorance.
Silence will unite you to God. . . .
In the beginning we have to force ourselves
to be silent. But then from our very silence
is born something that draws us into deeper silence.
— Isaac of Nineveh, 7th century Syrian monk

It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister.
— Thomas Merton

The silence is there within us. What we have to do is to enter into it, to become silent, to become the silence. The purpose of meditation and the challenge of meditation is to allow ourselves to become silent enough to allow this interior silence to emerge. Silence is the language of the spirit.
— John Mains

Silence of the heart is necessary so you can hear God everywhere — in the closing of the door, in the person who needs you, in the birds that sing, in the flowers, in the animals.
— Mother Teresa

The friend of silence comes close to God. In secret he converses with him and receives his light.
— John Climacus

Silence is God's first language; everything else is a poor translation. In order to hear that language, we must learn to be still and to rest in God.
— Thomas Keating

Are they moved by a sense of human need for silence, for reflection, for inner seeking? So they want to get away from the noise and tension of modern life, at least for a little while, in order to relax their minds and wills and seek a blessed healing sense of inner unity, reconciliation, integration?
— Thomas Merton

The Invitation of Lent: Ash Wednesday

Karen Marsh — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:28:00 +0000

"Show me your way, O Lord!"

The Psalmist's longing for God still echoes in us today. For those of us on the road of pilgrim faith, Lent is a season of the Christian year which invites us to listen to our own longing, to simplify our lives, and to focus on our relationship with God in Christ.

The Soul's Springtime

Lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word lencten, the lengthening of days from winter towards summer: spring. The term lento directs a musician to play slowly and thoughtfully. The Christian season of Lent is the 40 days (excluding Sundays) between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Traditionally it has commemorated Jesus' 40 days of fasting in the wilderness following his baptism. Lent also reminds us of the 40 days that Elijah and Moses both spent with God, and the 40 years Israel wandered in the desert. Lent prepares the way for the greatest observance of the year, the death and resurrection of Jesus on Easter morning.

Lent can be our own springtime path from darkness into light. As we spiritually journey into the wilderness, through solitude and self-reflection, Lent can flower in us with its fruits of right relationship with God and joy in Christ's resurrection.

On Ash Wednesday

"May God grant us the wisdom to know ourselves; the courage to admit our sins; and the grace to receive God's never failing mercy and forgiveness."

"Go in peace, remembering that you are but dust and ashes and unworthy of being called the people of God. But also remember that you who were no people, God by his love and grace has made a people, children of his own household. Let us go forth in humility to be Christ to the world."

The Fourth Week of Advent

Karen Marsh — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 14:43:00 +0000

If Mary had appeared in Bethlehem clothed, as St. John says, with the sun, a crown of twelve stars on her head, and the moon under her feet, then people would have fought to make room for her. But that was not God's way for her, nor is it Christ's way for himself, now when he is disguised under every type of humanity that treads the earth...It is no use saying that we are born two thousand years too late to give room to Christ. Nor will those who live at the end of the world have been born too late. Christ is always with us, always asking for room in our hearts. --Dorothy Day

The Third Week of Advent

Karen Marsh — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:47:00 +0000

When God
chooses Mary as the instrument,
when God wants to enter this world
in the manger of Bethlehem,
this is not an idyllic family occasion,
but rather the beginning
of a complete reversal,
a new ordering of all things on this earth.
---Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Christ of the cosmos,
Living Word,
come to heal and save...
Incognito, in our streets,
beneath the concrete,
between the cracks,
behind the curtains,
within the dreams,
in ageing memories,
in childhood wonder,
in secret ponds,
in broken hearts,

in Bethlehem stable,
still small voice,
Word of God, amongst us.
-- Iona Community
Simplicity: a Christmas Pledge

Believing in the beauty and simplicity of Christmas,
I commit myself :
To remember those people who truly need my gifts;
To express my love for family and friends
in more direct ways than presents;
To rededicate myself to my own spiritual growth
and to the growth of my family;
To examine my holiday activities
in the light of the true spirit of Christmas;
To initiate one act of peacemaking within my circle of family & friends.

I myself am very glad that the divine child was born in a stable, because my soul is very much like a stable, filled with strange unsatisfied longings, with guilt and animal-like impulses, tormented by anxiety, inadequacy and pain. If the Holy One could be born in such a place, that One can be born in me also. I am not excluded. --Morton Kelsey

The Second Week of Advent

Karen Marsh — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 18:55:00 +0000

Annunciation

Mary's 'How can this be?' was a simple response...and profound. She does not lose her voice but finds it. Like many of the prophets, she asserts herself before God saying, 'Here am I.' There is no arrogance, however, but only holy fear and wonder. Mary proceeds--as we must do in life--making her commitments without knowing much about what it will entail or where it will lead. I treasure the story because it forces me to ask: When the mystery of God's love breaks through into my consciousness, do I run from it?...Or am I virgin enough to respond from my deepest, truest self, and say something new, a 'yes' that will change me forever?" --Kathleen Norris from Amazing Grace

The Habit of Advent

In Mary "the Word of God chose to be silent for the season measured by God. She, too, was silent: in her the light of God shone in darkness." (Caryll Houselander)

We, too, may practice this habit of Advent patience. Though the frozen winter earth of our hearts lies fallow, God is pleased to warm us with Christ's presence.

Lo, in the silent night
a child to God is born
And all is brought again
That ere was lost or lorn

Could but thy soul, o man
Become a silent night!
God would be born in thee
And set all things aright.--15th century, author unknown

The First Week of Advent

Karen Marsh — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 14:28:00 +0000

"By far the most important and significant event in the whole course of human history will be celebrated, with or without understanding, at the end of this season, Advent. The towering miracle of God's visit to this planet on which we live will be glossed over, brushed aside or rendered by over-familiarity.

What we are in fact celebrating is the awe-inspiring humility of God, and no trappings of Christmas should ever blind us to its quiet but explosive significance. For Christians believe that so great is God's love and concern for humanity that he himself became a man.

God's insertion of himself into human history was achieved with an almost frightening quietness and humility. There was no advertisement, no publicity, no special privilege; in fact the entry of God into his own world was almost heartbreakingly humble. In sober fact there is little romance or beauty in the thought of a young woman looking desperately for a place where she could give birth to her first baby. I do not think for a moment Mary complained, but it is a bitter commentary upon the world that no one would give up a bed for the pregnant woman--and that the Son of God must be born in a stable.

Behind all our fun and games at Christmastime, we should not try to escape a sense of awe, almost a sense of fright, at what God has done. We must never allow anything to blind us to the true significance of what happened at Bethlehem so long ago. Nothing can alter the fact that we live on a visited planet.

We shall be celebrating no beautiful myth, no lovely piece of traditional folklore, but a solemn fact. God has been here once historically, but...he will come again with the same silence and the same devastating humility into any human heart ready to receive him."

---J.B. Phillips (1906-1982) from Good News: Thoughts on God and Man

We invite your response! Click on "comments" and join the conversation.

Give thanks with us!

Karen Marsh — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:21:00 +0000

At Thanksgiving we pause to reflect on God's many good gifts, and to give thanks in the company of those we love.

Though we may be far apart, you are invited to join us here on this blog. Please add your favorite table blessings, prayers, readings...or simply reflect on what fills you with gratitude....

Here are a few words to get us started:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into God's presence with singing!
Know that the Lord is God! It is he that made us, we are his;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him, bless his name!
For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
ans his faithfulness to all generations.
---Psalm 100

"Live wholeheartedly, be surprised, give thanks and praise, then you will discover the fullness of your life." --Brother David Steindle-Rast

Now click on "comment" and share your own thanksgivings!

Religion: Discovery or Invention?

Karen Marsh — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:41:00 +0000

"I grew up believing what my parents and what the church taught me, and that is that God created human beings. But now that I've been exposed to lots of other data, I've concluded that it's the other way around. It's human beings who have created God....I think people dig down into their own needs and into their desires, and they make up their wishes, and they project that onto the screen of religious belief. I don't think there's anything objectively real when a person says, 'I believe'."

With this, the young college student requests that her name be removed from membership in the church, saying that she can no longer consider herself a Christian. The minister, John Claypool, asks, "Where did you encounter this charge against the validity of religious experience?"

Her answer? "It's everywhere in the academic community where I'm living." Among several examples, she quotes the playwright Eugene O'Neill she's studied in a drama course: "Religion is the chloroform mask into which the weak and the fearful stick their faces."

Reverend Claypool responds: "Because I believe you're honest and you're seeking, I invite you to do three things before coming to a final judgement about this very, very momentous question."

He offers three tasks to the young thinker. He asks her to

Read the Gospel of Mark at one sitting. "I want you to ask one question as you read the Book of Mark: Is this Jesus a weak coward making up something, or is He in touch with something that made extraordinary demands of Him?"

Look at the story of Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus in the Book of Acts. Does Saul's discovery on that road represent wishful thinking? "Was it what he most wanted to be true...was he making it up out of his needfulness?...The truth revealed to him that day was the very opposite of what he had built toward his whole life."

Write out in your own words the the kind of religious vision that you would most like to be true. "Make up a religion that suits you exactly and precisely." Isn't it true that there is much in Christianity that is not what is easiest for selfish people to embrace: loving your enemies, taking up a cross and denying myself, judgement, forgiving 70 times seven?

John Claypool says, "Before you come to a final conclusion that there is nothing to the religious enterprise except selfishness and needfulness projected on a screen outside ourselves, I'd like you to look at the life of Jesus, the experience of Saul of Tarsus and then examine your own needs, your own wants, and compare this to the canon" of Christianity.

In his sermon, Claypool goes on to discuss faith as an avenue of knowing, an authentic way of discovering genuine truth. His insights are an encouragement to those of us who are open, who are seeking, and who are willing to say, "I want to know the truth and I want to know it whatever shape it takes."

Read on by clicking this link:
Word ClaypoolWord.doc or pdf Claypoolpdf.pdf
or Listen to the audio Claypoolaudio.ram

Join the conversation by posting your comments below.

What has been your own experience of religion in the intellectual world?
Would Claypool's "three things" engage you-- or a skeptical friend?
What do you think of the ideas in Claypool's sermon?

A PRAYER FOR SEEKERS

"Father in heaven! We know indeed that seeking is never without its promise, how then could we fail to seek You, the author of all promises and the giver of all good gifts! We know well that the seeker does not always have to wander far afield since the more sacred the object of his search, the nearer it is to him; and if he seeks You, O God, You are all of things most near!"
--Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (1813-1855)

Alleluia! Easter Sunday

Karen Marsh — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 07:33:00 +0000

Are there any who are devout lovers of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!
Are there any who are grateful servants?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!
Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!...

Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!
First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!
You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,
rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!

Feast royally on it, the calf is the fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, the cup of faith.
Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Saviour has set us free.
He has destroyed death by enduring it.
He destroyed Hell when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh....

Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and it was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where it thy sting? O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!

Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

--from The Easter sermon of John Chrysostom (circa 400 AD)

The Love of God: Good Friday

Karen Marsh — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 08:11:00 +0000

To look at the Crucifix and then to look at our own hearts; to test by the cross the quality of our love--if we do that honestly and unflinchingly we don't need any other self-examination. The lash, the crown of thorns, the mockery, the stripping, the nails--life has equivalents of all of these for us and God asks for a love for himself and his children which can accept and survive all that in the particular way in which it is offered to us. It is no use to talk in a large vague way about the love of God; here is its point of insertion in the world.

--Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)

Maundy Thursday: The Last Supper

Karen Marsh — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:10:00 +0000

Recalling Christ's Passion
with Francis & Clare of Assisi

from The Word:
"During the meal, Jesus took and blessed the bread, broke it and gave it to his disciples: 'Take, eat. This is my body.' Taking the cup and thanking God he gave it to them: 'Drink this, all of you. This is my blood, God's new covenant poured out for many people for the forgiveness of sins. I'll not be drinking wine from this cup again until that new day when I'll drink with you in the kingdom of my Father."
--Matthew 26:29, The Message

Francis:
"Behold, each day he humbles himself as when he came from the royal throne into the into the Virgin's womb; each day he himself comes to us, appearing humbly...As he revealed himself to the holy apostles in true flesh, so he reveals himself to us now in the sacred bread...In this way the Lord is always with his faithful, as he himself says: Behold I am with you until the end of the age."
--Admonitions 1

Clare:
"Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!
Place your soul in the brilliance of glory!
Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance!
...So that you too may feel what his friends feel as they taste the hidden sweetness that God himself has reserved from the beginning for those who love him."
--Letter III to St. Agnes of Prague

From an offering of Scripture accompanied by words from St. Francis (1182-1226) & St. Clare (1194-1253) of Assisi modelled on the traditional Stations of the Cross. To see the complete series, go to the website of the Poor Clare Colettine Community of Hawarden Wales, .

Open Your Eyes: Palm Sunday

Karen Marsh — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 13:36:00 +0000

Last Sunday we worshipped at the Kirche zur Heimat in Berlin, Germany. The service was, naturally, in German, and while Charles and I knew enough to follow along, our children comprehended nothing. They sat quietly; their eyes wandered. The early spring sun streamed through the window and fell onto images in stone relief along the wall. There, in fifteen panels by Waldemar Otto, was the story of God's saving work through Israel. Can you identify the story told in this image? (Those are waves above the slaves' heads.) Will and Nan had an hour to ponder the beautiful pictures and let the German sermon go right over their heads.

I thought of the many generations of churchgoers who for centuries--from early Christian times until 1962-- worshipped God through the Roman Catholic Latin mass. Many of these humble saints were illiterate, I'm sure, and may have known little Latin. But in their churches they were surrounded, as my children were, by images of the Biblical stories. We see much of this sacred art during our semester here in Europe, pictures created across ages to tell timeless truths to us all.

With Palm Sunday we begin Holy Week and follow Christ's footsteps through his Passion, death and, at last, to his glorious Resurrection. Christians of many traditions enter their church sanctuaries to focus again on pictures along the wall, on the images that compose the Way of the Cross.

The Way of the Cross dates back to medieval times, when Christians unable to make the physical journey to the Holy Land made an imaginary pilgrimage through art depicting Christ's Passion. The Stations of the Cross, traditionally fourteen sculptures or panels ranged along the church walls, invite pilgrims then and now to slow down, pray, reflect, and seek to walk along with Christ, remembering his sacrificial journey for us.

If, in the coming days, you find yourself near the door of a church, particularly an Anglican, Episcopal or Roman Catholic church, step inside and open your eyes and your spirit to the Pascal mystery told through the Stations of the Cross.

There are number of internet resources presenting the Way of the Cross in creative and fresh ways. I invite you to explore them, too:

The College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, West Yorkshire, England, offers the Stations of the Cross with art, readings and prayers from the Iona Community in both text and audio.

Collaborative Ministry of Creighton University presents the Stations of the Cross with a focus on this devotion as prayer that leads us to gratitude. Art, text and audio. Not a very fancy website, but the readings are imaginatively done.

The BBC has posted the Stations of the Cross in beautifully simple art and some historical notes. Click on each small image to see it enlarged with accompanying text.

The Poor Clares of the Ty Mam Duw community in Wales offer a unique take on the tradition with their Gospel Way of the Passion with Francis and Clare. They combine Gospel readings from The Message with words from Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi.

For Our Sakes: the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Karen Marsh — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 11:22:00 +0000

The Maker of man was made man,
that the Ruler of the stars might suck at the breast;
that the Bread might be hungered,
the Fountain, thirst,
the Light, sleep,
the Way, be wearied by the journey,
the Truth be accused by false witnesses,
the Judge of the living and the dead, be judged by a mortal judge,
the Chastener, be chastised with whips,
the Vine, be crowned with thorns,
the Foundation, be hung upon a tree,
Strength, be made weak,
Health, be wounded,
Life, die,
to suffer these and such like things, undeserved things;
that He might free the undeserving.
For neither did He deserve any evil,
Who for our sakes endured so many evils;
nor were we deserving of anything good,
we who through Him received such good.

--St. Augustine (354-430)

image: The Cross of San Damiano (Umbria, 12th century) is especially treasured, as Francis of Assisi was praying before this cross when he received God's call to rebuild the church.

Winter Before Spring: the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Karen Marsh — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:15:00 +0000

"Before spring becomes beautiful it is ugly, nothing but mud and muck...The word humus, the decayed vegetable matter that feeds plants, comes from the same root that gives ride to the word humility. It helps me to understand that the humiliating events of my life...may create the fertile soil in which something new can grow."

--Parker Palmer, contemporary Quaker author

"Everything you need to know about life--about the mysteries of life, about the secret to life--can be learned in a garden, if you pay attention. For those of us hostage to the urban landscape, who pay little attention to the seasons...those of us who proceed from one appointment to the next oblivious to our environment, oblivious to the turning seasons, oblivious to the colors of plants--for us the church's recognition of the forty days of Lent becomes a reminder that we cannot experience the Easter tide of resurrection and renewal until we first go through a period of disequilibrium, of dying, of shedding, of letting go, of winter. You cannot experience spring until you have first experienced winter. You cannot experience Easter, Resurrection Sunday, until you first experience Lent."

--The Rev. Dr. Renita J. Weems, contemporary teacher & minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." --John 12:24

"I have awaited a storm that should deliver me or pluck me away, and now it has come softly, even without my knowledge. But it is here. While I was despairing, thinking everything lost, it was already quietly growing...And now I know that all life is a process of getting ready, of ferment...If the cells and channels but take up and carry the onward surging sap, there will emerge at last rustling, leafy branches--a crown of sunlight and freedom."

--Erich Maria Remarque, German author of All Quiet on the Western Front (1898-1970)

"The goal of human life is not death, but resurrection."
--Karl Barth, Swiss Protestant theologian (1886-1968)

Singing Our Faith: the Third Sunday in Lent

Karen Marsh — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 06:47:00 +0000

Christians in Germany are celebrating the 400th birthday of their greatest hymn writer, Paul Gerhardt, born March 12, 1607. This sunny Berlin morning, In the medieval Marienkirche, we were transported by Gerhardt's words and music. As Bishop Wolfgang Huber said in his sermon, we were experiencing the very singing of the angels together with us.

In his hymns, Paul Gerhardt combines a firm conviction of true Christian doctrine with deeply personal sentiment. His poetry is suffused with appreciation for human life and the natural world. Above all, Gerhardt expresses a belief in the Love of God as the greatest reality.

This "sweet singer of Lutheranism" wrote in the vernacular of 17th century German. Living through the difficult period of the Thirty Years War, Gerhardt suffered great personal losses and found himself at the center of theological conflicts. Despite Gerhardt's trials, what comes through in his poetry is the voice of one reliant on God, convinced of God's goodness and rejoicing in God's gifts.

On this Third Sunday in Lent, we offer a well known hymn by Paul Gerhardt based on Bernard of Clairvaux's 12th century text. In "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden", Gerhardt's fervent love for Christ speaks across 400 years to move us to faith, as well.
[ More of Gerhardt's poems]

O sacred Head now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown.
O sacred Head, what glory, what bliss, till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine.

Men mock and taunt and jeer Thee, thou noble countenance,
Though mighty worlds shall fear Thee and flee before thy glance.
How art thou pale with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How doth Thy visage languish that once was bright as morn!

Now from Thy cheeks has vanished their color, once so fair;
From Thy red lips is banished the splendor that was there.
Grim Death, with cruel rigor hath robbed Thee of Thy life;
Thus Thou hast lost Thy vigor, thy strength, in this sad strife.

My burden in Thy passion, Lord, thou hast borne for me,
For it was my transgression which brought this woe on thee.
I cast me down before Thee, wrath were my rightful lot;
Have mercy, I implore thee; Redeemer, spurn me not!

My Shepherd now receive me; my Guardian, own me Thine.
Great blessings Thou didst give me, O Source of gifts divine!
Thy lips have often fed me with words of truth and love,
Thy Spirit oft hath led me to heavenly joys above....

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest Friend
For this, Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O, make me Thine forever! And should I fainting be,
Lord let me never, never outlive my love for thee....

next posting: Wednesday, 14. March
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He Gave Us Himself

Karen Marsh — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:50:00 +0000

It is, of course, the most familiar, the most often-told story in the world. Yet it is also the strangest, and it has never lost its strangeness, its awe, and will not even in eternity, where angels tremble to gaze at things we yawn at.

And however strange, it is the only key that fits the lock of our tortured lives and needs. We needed a surgeon, he came and reached into our wounds with bloody hands. He didn't give us a placebo or a pill or good advice. He gave us himself.

He came. He entered space and time and suffering. He came, like a lover. He did the most important thing and he gave the most important gift: himself. It is a lover's gift. Out of our tears, our waiting, our darkness, our agonized aloneness, out of our weeping and wondering, out of our cry, 'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?' he came, all the way, right into that cry.

He sits beside us in the lowest places of our lives, like water. Are we broken? He is broken with us....Does it seem sometimes as if life has passed us by or cast us out, as if we are sinking into uselessness and oblivion? He sinks with us. He too is passed over by the world. His way of suffering love is rejected, his followers often the most guilty of all; they have made his name a scandal, especially among his own chosen people. What Jew finds the road to him free from the broken weapons of bloody prejudice? We have made it nearly impossible for his own people to love him, to see him as he is, free from the smoke of battle and holocaust.

How does he look upon us now? With continual sorrow, but never with scorn. We add to his wounds. There are two thousand nails in his cross. We, his beloved and longed for and passionately desired, are constantly cold and correct and distant to him. And still he keeps brooding over the world like a hen over an egg, like a mother who has had all of her beloved children turn against her. 'Could a mother desert her young? Even so I could not desert you.' He sits beside us not only in our sufferings but even in our sins. He does not turn his face from us, however much we turn our face from him.

--Peter Kreeft (1937- ), American Roman Catholic philosopher
Next posting: the Third Sunday in Lent, 12. March

That is the God for me! The Second Sunday in Lent

Karen Marsh — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 09:27:00 +0000

"No matter how deep our darkness,
he is deeper still." --Corrie Ten Boom (1892-1983), from the depths of a Nazi death camp

I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe is the one Nietzsche ridiculed as 'God on the Cross.' In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?

I have entered many Buddhist temples and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away.

And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness.

That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us.

--John Stott (1921- ), Anglican theologian

next posting: Wednesday, 8. March 2007

RESOURCES FOR LENT

Karen Marsh — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:54:00 +0000

You are invited to share books, thoughts, websites, articles, Bible verses that you find rich resources for Lent. Here are a few that we have found:

WEBSITES
Journey to the Center: A Lenten Passage by Father Thomas Keating daily Scripture, devotional & prayer.

ExploreFaith.org Accessible tools for lent from a broad Christian perspective

Bible Readings For Lent from the Book of Common Prayer Join believers throughout the world through shared Scripture readings throughout Lent

BOOKS
Show Me The Way: Readings For Each Day of Lent by Henri J.M. Nouwen

Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (a collection from various authors)

THOUGHTS IN LENT

"The old German word for springtime is 'Lenz' which is also connected with our word Lent. Here in Germany, however, it is generally said that 'Lent' (which they sometimes use here, although the German term is 'Fastenzeit') comes from the Latin word 'lentus' which means slow, calm, quiet, reposeful, deliberate--all words that refer to the attitude we are to have during the 40 days of fasting."
--Mary in Berlin, Germany

"Ash Wednesday. Lent's forty day beginning. Reflecting and repenting as we think of all that Christ came to break and came to offer...then, three days after the cross, we will be those for whom great remembering rejoicing will come. Reflecting. Repenting. Rejoicing. Fasting. Feasting. Easter's coming.

Like the ebb and flow of the tidal marsh creek nearby, the seasons of the church year add a rhythm to our worship. Beginnings. Endings. Changes. Constancy. Fasting. Feasting. Heart journeys for celebrating, confessing, over and over again. Easter's coming."
--Lane in St. Simons, Georgia, USA

"Our Lenten Roses are showing up through our snows, and the morning air sifting thru our open bedroom windows smell of new life."
--Dan in Denver, Colorado, USA

Please add your own reflections & resources! Click on "comments"

Look into this Mirror: the first Sunday in Lent

Karen Marsh — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 09:10:00 +0000

"For he is the brightness of eternal glory,
he is splendour of eternal light,
the mirror without spot."
--St. Clare of Assisi

In mirrors I see myself. But in mirrors made of glass and silver I never see the whole of myself. I see the me I want to see, and I ignore the rest.

Mirrors that hide nothing hurt me. They reveal an ugliness I'd rather deny....But this is the hurt of purging and precious renewal--and these are the mirrors of dangerous grace.

The passion of Christ, his suffering and his death, is such a mirror....The pain in the face of Jesus...is my self in my extremest truth. My sinful self. The death he died reflects a selfishness so extreme that by it I was divorced from God and life and light completely: I raised my self higher than God! But because the Lord God is the only true God, my pride did no more, in the end, than to condemn this false god of my self to death. For God will be God, and all the false gods will fall before him.

So that's what I see reflected in the mirror of Christ's crucifixion: my death. My rightful punishment. My sin and its just consequence. Me. And precisely because it is so accurate, the sight is nearly intolerable.

Nevertheless, I will not avoid this mirror! No, I will carefully rehearse, again this year, the passion of my Jesus--with courage, with clarity and faith; for this is the mirror of dangerous grace, purging more purely than any other.

For this one is not made of glass and silver, nor of fallen flesh only. This mirror is made of righteous flesh and divinity, both--and this one loves me absolutely....

This mirror is not passive only, showing what is; it is active, creating new things to be. It shows me a new me behind the shadow of a sinner. For when I gaze at his crucifixion, I see my death indeed--but my death done! His death is the death of the selfish one, whom I called ugly and hated to look upon.

And resurrection is another me.

--Walter Wangerin (American Lutheran pastor, novelist, essayist, 1944--)
from Reliving the Passion

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the next posting: Sunday, March 4