Archive for Lectionary

Feeling

August 1, 2015 / / Comments Off on Feeling
"Oberfallenberg 11" by böhringer friedrich - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons

“Oberfallenberg 11” by böhringer friedrich – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons

 

What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us…  (Acts 17: 23-27)

 

I’ve been away for a while, and I’m feeling a bit rusty, but I have a small thought to share. Just some impressions really–not even a thought.

I read the lectionary passages early this morning as I was sitting looking out at my grey, pre-sun backyard, waiting for the birds and chipmunks to stir and come looking for food at the feeder outside my window. And as I looked, I thought about the God who made the world and all the nations “in the hope that they might feel after him and find him.”

What does it mean to “feel after God?” Do we reach out with mind and spirit–as if shuffling in a mist with hands outstretched–stepping into the cloud of unknowing, trusting we will touch or be touched by the Divine? Is he waiting somewhere, or does he move in the mist to lead us on a chase? And I wonder, when we find him, will we trust what we feel? Will we recognize him by what we feel?

I am not a trusting soul. I am wary. And this shuffling in the mist could all be very frustrating were it not for the words, “in the hope that they might feel after him and find him.”

I think of God hoping to be found. (“Come on, reach for me.”) The Lord of heaven and earth, and yet not far from each one of us….

 

Category: Lectionary, Mystery, Revelation /

The hungry sheep

December 11, 2013 / / Comments Off on The hungry sheep

Feed my lambs
painting by Kathryn Trotter

A very quick note:

Today’s Daily Office reading included this passage from Revelation 2:

“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear evil men but have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and found them to be false;  I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.  But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.  Remember then from what you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.  Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicola′itans, which I also hate.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

 

Time Magazine, naming Pope Francis Person of the Year, writes:

…what makes this Pope so important is the speed with which he has captured the imaginations of millions who had given up on hoping for the church at all. People weary of the endless parsing of sexual ethics, the buck-passing infighting over lines of authority when all the while (to borrow from Milton), “the hungry Sheep look up, and are not fed.” In a matter of months, Francis has elevated the healing mission of the church—the church as servant and comforter of hurting people in an often harsh world—above the doctrinal police work so important to his recent predecessors.

 

And from John: 

“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

Category: Advent, Lectionary, love, Pope /

Ministry on the Web: Jenee Woodard and The Text This Week

November 12, 2013 / / Comments Off on Ministry on the Web: Jenee Woodard and The Text This Week

Jenee Woodward
Photo: Abingdon Press

 

If you aren’t familiar with Jenee Woodard and her website “The Text this Week,” then take a minute to read her inspiring story at Faith and Leadership. (I mean it. Really.) A graduate of Saint Paul School of Theology, Woodard was on the path to becoming an academic until her son was diagnosed with severe autism. When his needs changed her plans, she instead created and now runs one of the most visited Christian websites in America: Textweek.com. Though she aspired to a bookish and cloistered career as a scholar, God sent her instead to the mission field of the World Wide Web where she reaches hundreds of thousands of people.

“It is my ministry — or what I do with my life, as I explore what I think is my responsibility as a human being — to give more than I take, and to use my gifts for service to others, while giving myself a delightful new lens on texts and interpreters of texts.

“This is the heart of my own faith and of my task, as I see it, in the world.”

As I read the interview, I marveled that Woodard carried on this work for ten years before receiving any compensation  That’s a very long time to keep saying “yes” to God’s call–especially if you consider what the internet looked like in August 1998 when she began the site.

The path of ministry can be wildly unpredictable. You can be on it and not know for sure you’ve been called. And if you are sure and you say, “Here am I. Send me!” you can’t count on being asked, “Where would you like to go?”  In 1998, a site like TextWeek might have looked a bit like the ark in the back yard. To the world, Jennee Woodard might not have looked sufficiently credentialed or affiliated to do this work. It might have seemed like a crazy idea for a solitary layperson. And yet, she used her talents to minister to others, and God blessed her work.

Category: Internet, laity, Lectionary, ministry / Tags: , ,
 
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