Lenten Reflection Day 39 (April 1): DELIVERANCE (Psalm 40:5-10).
SONG: Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandell: Dueling Banjos (Deliverance 1972): https://youtu.be/p8t8uqEf6_A
POEM: Linda Hogan: The History of Red (excerpt): … A wildness / swam inside our mothers, desire through closed eyes, a new child / wearing the red, wet mask of birth, delivered into this land / already wounded, stolen and burned / beyond reckoning.
QUOTE: JRR Tolkien: Fairy tale does not deny the existence of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance. It denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat…giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy; Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.
Lenten Reflection Day 38 (Mar 31): LAW (Psalm 40:5-10).
SONG: This Side of the Law by Johnny Cash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GWe4sOIEeY&feature=youtu.be
POEM: Albert Goldbarth: Laws of the Universe (excerpt): … Well, we could: if the laws of the universe changed. It’s only the Earth that makes us so heavy. It’s only our lives that keep our lives / from floating off into the nothing.
QUOTE: Herman Hesse: For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers … In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured.
C3: COCKTAILS & CHRISTIAN CONVERSATIONS
Fri, Oct 21 @ 5pm
- 5pm • Zoom link and password required
- Bring your adult beverage and your curiosity for a conversation about our sacred texts.
- The text is provided below
PSALM 40
1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the desolate pit,[a]
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.
4 Happy are those who make
the Lord their trust,
who do not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after false gods.
5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you.
Were I to proclaim and tell of them,
they would be more than can be counted.
6 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire,
but you have given me an open ear.[b]
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required.
7 Then I said, “Here I am;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me.[c]
8 I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance
in the great congregation;
see, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know, O Lord.
10 I have not hidden your saving help within my heart,
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
from the great congregation.
11 Do not, O Lord, withhold
your mercy from me;
let your steadfast love and your faithfulness
keep me safe forever.
12 For evils have encompassed me
without number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
until I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails me.
17 As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God.
PSALM 96
1 O sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples.
4 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be revered above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Honor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts.
9 Worship the Lord in holy splendor;
tremble before him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, “The Lord is king!
The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved.
He will judge the peoples with equity.”
11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
12 let the field exult, and everything in it.
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
13 before the Lord; for he is coming,
for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with his truth.
Mon, Nov 9 Gratitude Reflection
Pay attention to your feet. Stand. Walk. Ground yourself.
Know you are connected to the place where you set foot. Land there. Pace yourself. Remain still. Or move. Know that your presence, motionless or on the go, offers a form of prayer.
Recognize lives — self or others — wherein standing or walking becomes a challenge: impossible, compromised, or precarious. Consider lives transformed by changes in mobility and independence. Celebrate how people adapt to challenges regarding the ability to walk, to walk with support or aid, or to adapt to new forms of mobility. — Rev Gail
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
— Psalm 40
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. — Luke 17
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.
― Thich Nhat Hanh
We use our feet so often and so constantly that it is easy to take them for granted when everything is working well. Maybe your feet don’t look perfect, and maybe they even impart pain at times. Nevertheless, our feet are exquisitely designed to support and propel us through all the various movements of life. — Samuel Goltman
And when I gazed down at my bare feet—stopped to really look at them—I could feel a new sense of gratitude for them and wondered where they might take me next. – Bruce Black