Jesus and the Daughters Mark 5:21-43 The Message (MSG) A Risk of Faith   21-24 After Jesus crossed over by boat, a large crowd met him at the seaside. One of the meeting-place leaders named Jairus came. When he saw Jesus, he fell to his knees, beside himself as he begged, "My dear daughter is at death's door. Come and lay hands on her so she will get well and live." Jesus went with him, the whole crowd tagging along, pushing and jostling him.   25-29 A woman who had suffered a condition of hemorrhaging for twelve years—a long succession of physicians had treated her, and treated her badly, taking all her money and leaving her worse off than before—had heard about Jesus. She slipped in from behind and touched his robe. She was thinking to herself, "If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well." The moment she did it, the flow of blood dried up. She could feel the change and knew her plague was over and done with.   30 At the same moment, Jesu...

Linda and I were married 55 years ago today, June 29, 1957, the first wedding at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church. Officiating was the Reverend David R. Damon. Some years later David and Olive accepted a call to a parish in Jacksonville, but he began with us at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, as an engineer at the Navy base, going to Sewanee from there, and returning to Panama City after ordination.  Graduated from the University of Florida a few weeks earlier, I had already been sworn into the Navy as an Officer Candidate Seaman Apprentice and, a week after our wedding, headed off from Panama City airport to Officer Candidate School, Newport, Rhode Island, a four month school leading to commissioning as Ensign, USNR. Life at a Navy school was interesting and different, living in a dormitory of four-man rooms, with great camaraderie among the young men in Charlie Company. All of us were 21 years old and graduated from college within the past month, me with the deep, strong sou...

If nothing posts online in the next few minutes, several kind and caring souls will email asking whether everything is OK. One morning during my tenuous period Oct2010 - Jan2011 when nothing went up by 0430, a friend anxiously contemplated calling 911 and sending the EMS to 2308WBD. So this is hurried, not careful or reasoned. The early hour mind is fairly clear and may browse email, NYT, TWP, CNN.com, NHC, TWC, internet; this morning, desktop files that haven’t been explored lately. Lectionary B for Summer 2012 has us in 2Corinthians, and my interest in Paul is his christology, on which there is scholarship online, some good; the right-wing runs to rubbish. A year or more ago a friend sent a piece by Richard Bauckham, opened again this morning and read partway before realizing the passage of time. “Paul’s Christology of Divine Identity.” Though I still may not agree with Bauckham, it’s excellent and stirs the mind. Yep, OK.  Pills, treadmill, breakfast, dress and to...

1  שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלֹות מִמַּעֲמַקִּים קְרָאתִיךָ יְהוָה׃ 2  אֲדֹנָי שִׁמְעָה בְקֹולִי תִּהְיֶינָה אָזְנֶיךָ קַשֻּׁבֹות לְקֹול תַּחֲנוּנָי׃ 3  אִם־עֲוֹנֹות תִּשְׁמָר־יָהּ אֲדֹנָי מִי יַעֲמֹד׃ 4  כִּי־עִמְּךָ הַסְּלִיחָה לְמַעַן תִּוָּרֵא׃ 5  קִוִּיתִי יְהוָה קִוְּתָה נַפְשִׁי וְלִדְבָרֹו הֹוחָלְתִּי׃ 6  נַפְשִׁי לַאדֹנָי מִשֹּׁמְרִים לַבֹּקֶר שֹׁמְרִים לַבֹּקֶר׃ 7  יַחֵל יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל־יְהוָה כִּי־עִם־יְהוָה הַחֶסֶד וְהַרְבֵּה עִמֹּו פְדוּת׃ 8  וְהוּא יִפְדֶּה אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִכֹּל עֲוֹנֹתָיו׃ Psalm 130 A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths have I called Thee, O LORD. Lord, hearken unto my voice; let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If Thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? For with Thee there is forgiveness, that Thou mayest be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than watchmen for the m...

Distraction: a thing that prevents one from giving full attention to the main focus. Diversion. The bustle in a house The morning after death Is solemnest of industries Enacted upon earth,-- The sweeping up the heart, And putting love away We shall not want to use again Until eternity.      Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) People go about life, and Earth continues to spin regardless, notwithstanding, and nevertheless.  Dickinson. Distractions ease the moment, and the memory of them lasts a lifetime. Irrelevant, nonsensical details. My mother was out on an errand when I arrived home after school Thursday, January 23, 1947. The maid called me into the kitchen and asked, “Did you know your grandmother died today?” It was a crushing shock that brought on wracking sobs. When my mother sped up the driveway in our blue 1942 Chevrolet Fleetline Aerosedan  a few minutes later, she was upset because, knowing my closeness to Mom, she had told the maid ...

2 Corinthians 8:7-15 Good News Translation (GNT) 7 You are so rich in all you have: in faith, speech, and knowledge, in your eagerness to help and in your love for us. And so we want you to be generous also in this service of love.   8 I am not laying down any rules. But by showing how eager others are to help, I am trying to find out how real your own love is. 9 You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; rich as he was, he made himself poor for your sake, in order to make you rich by means of his poverty.   10 My opinion is that it is better for you to finish now what you began last year. You were the first, not only to act, but also to be willing to act. 11 On with it, then, and finish the job! Be as eager to finish it as you were to plan it, and do it with what you now have. 12 If you are eager to give, God will accept your gift on the basis of what you have to give, not on what you don't have.   13-14 I am not trying to relieve others by putting ...

Early Morning Heart and prayers with her family and friends, especially with my dear friend Rev Ray, as Madison sleeps and peacefully slips away into God’s eternity.  The most terrible thing in life is to suffer the loss of a cherished and beloved child; and the most difficult part of ministry is being with friends and family through a child’s dying and death. It’s wrenching to go through the internalization that brings flooding back all the other times through the years.  In a months-long, searing ministry course called Clinical Pastoral Education, we are trained, educated, practice over and over these experiences with real people, patients and their families and friends, and with a small group of colleagues under close supervision, in hospitals and other institutions, so that when we face the situations on our own we find ourselves fairly confident and competent in the darkness. Madi, as her friends call her, was in a car crash, with unsurvivable injuries. ...

RELATIVE Life in the nineteenth century likely was challenging and interesting enough without seeking entertainment in the newspaper serial stories of Charles Dickens and others. But reading The Pickwick Papers while traveling on the treadmill keeps the eye off the clock’s creeping second hand. So far, The Pickwick Papers with Samuel Weller and the Pickwickians, Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, maybe another freebie. Also MacBeth and Hamlet and Walden  free online and enlarged on the iPad screen for easy reading enroute. To where? Are we there yet? How much longer? The three-week dining room adventure was finished Thursday morning, with new plumbing in the bathroom above it, a new ceiling, new paint in dining room and adjacent living room, cleanup (the dust throughout the house may never all be), ceiling lamps replaced, furniture back. Pictures rearranged. Dining room rug could not be cleaned, a permanent casualty.  Life goes on. And whether it does or not, ...

2 Corinthians 6:1-13 (SV) As co-workers of God we implore you not to let the gift of God’s favor go to waste. As scripture says: At the right time I heard you; on a day of deliverance I came to your aid.* Look! The right time is now; see, today is the day of deliverance. We try to avoid offending anyone in any way so that no fault will be found with our work. In every way possible we present ourselves as God’s agents -- by great endurance, under heavy pressure, in anguish, and in distress, by beatings, imprisonments, riots, by hard work, sleepless nights, going hungry; by our sincerity, understanding, and long-suffering, by our kindness, with a spirit of integrity and genuine love, by speaking the truth and by God’s power armed both for offense and defense with weapons of justice, whether honored or dishonored, blamed or praised; labeled “deceivers” we are really truthful, “unknown” though really well known, “at death’s door” and look, “We’re alive!” Punished, but not p...

Congressional Citation Students in an MBA curriculum at the University of Michigan fifty years ago were required to take at least one course in Government. Professor D. Maynard Phelps (1897-1993), was much renowned, had served with the State Department during WWII, later on various commissions for German reparations, was a professor at UM for forty years, the biblical very long time . His papers now are filed at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Dr. Phelps was character, scholar, sage. He professed by lecturing in a packed auditorium. The only lecture hall more overflowing in my college years was when Robert Frost visited the University of Florida each year, or it may have been twice a year, stopping off during his travel between New England and his winter residence in Florida, to read and discuss his poems: not even standing room inside, rapt crowds attending loudspeakers outside.  Professor Phelps’ annual Pearl Harbor Day Lecture in December, “How Different It Wil...

Theodicy and the Collect Proper 7     The Sunday closest to June 22 O Lord, we beseech thee, make us have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name, for thou never failest to help and govern those whom thou hast set upon the sure foundation of thy loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. This collect for Sunday, June 24th dates to the 8th century Latin Mass and has been prescribed for use in our worship ever since, including in Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s 1549 Book of Common Prayer and right up to the present day. Being a people of Tradition, and resistant to change as in -- How many Anglicans does it take to change a lightbulb? What do you mean change ? My grandfather gave that lightbulb -- there seems no question but that we will go on saying it. Regardless. The word “fear” holds on long years, centuries, after its meaning has changed in common understanding and usag...

God-be-with-ye Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,      according to thy word; For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,      which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, To be a light to lighten the Gentiles,      and to be the glory of thy people Israel. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:     as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Choir sang the Nunc dimittis to close our worship every Sunday morning in my growing up years.   Always a capella , the same haunting Anglican Chant harmony. The tune, the harmony, their singing, is still and always part of me. Another that will never leave is the close of Sunday worship at First Presbyterian Church in Gainesville my freshman year at Florida. We always sang “God be with you till we meet again.”  http://www.youtube.com/wat...