tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56814497991396548692024-03-13T21:15:09.370-04:00Readfield UMCCommunity Conversation with the Readfield United Methodist Church.Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-37407473336544086022012-01-13T17:29:00.000-05:002012-01-13T17:29:15.202-05:00Looking in and on<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgju3KNyKYYvG1z5UlwW2hkmpvKwz9FgzU5DafSK3ApI69SyNYVxVE5jnieepIvz_W8-D0UavliIDyDfeNDR01DzaUHabvRAm9an1tAo9f_JyQolSZgE4xolsukTRey_mM73bYhxJJtKkk/s1600/GC12_LOGO_SUBFEATURE.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgju3KNyKYYvG1z5UlwW2hkmpvKwz9FgzU5DafSK3ApI69SyNYVxVE5jnieepIvz_W8-D0UavliIDyDfeNDR01DzaUHabvRAm9an1tAo9f_JyQolSZgE4xolsukTRey_mM73bYhxJJtKkk/s1600/GC12_LOGO_SUBFEATURE.png" /></a></div>For the next few months this blog is an invitation to look over my shoulder as I get ready to attend <a href="http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.6171105/k.1E2E/General_Conference_2012.htm" target="_blank">2012 General Conference </a>for the United Methodist Church. The <a href="http://www.interpretermagazine.org/interior.asp?ptid=43&mid=14495&tr=y&auid=10143352">Interpreter Magazine</a> has a great article outlining the issues and actions that are lining up. Its alot to try to take in. There are 15 of us from New England: 5 delegates to GC, 5 delegates to Jurisdictional Conference who are reserves for GC, and 5 reserves for Jurisdictional.<br />
As a reserve delegate to GC, I'll be prinarily a resource person to the 5 delegates from April 23-May 5. In June, the 10 of us will become the Jurisdictional Conference delegation. (more on what happens there later).<br />
General Conference is the only official authority of the greater United Methodist Church. No one else can speak for the denomination or act on its behalf without GF authorization. No one person is in charge. Its a crazy, highly structured, full of surprises, organic movement that's been going on since <a href="http://gbgm-umc.org/global_news/full_article.cfm?articleid=5618" target="_blank">1784</a>.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCc3mVMZjf89fWTENa_ZKtIWpxBU8z8DyplcJ5Kqkf58Hqxd3cErc1BuFaL1LbEhfjc9ozifSk8ktA702dvHvc4SERSAvUjwkvgCWWz9cEgzAdf16QkuIqRPsHJt3NKTM3PoFM-21IWd0/s1600/JesseLee.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCc3mVMZjf89fWTENa_ZKtIWpxBU8z8DyplcJ5Kqkf58Hqxd3cErc1BuFaL1LbEhfjc9ozifSk8ktA702dvHvc4SERSAvUjwkvgCWWz9cEgzAdf16QkuIqRPsHJt3NKTM3PoFM-21IWd0/s200/JesseLee.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pen & ink by Gloria White</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The church I serve, Readfield UMC in central Maine, is the descendent of 5 earlier congregations founded by <a href="http://www.winthropumc.org/jesseleecluster/jesselee.htm" target="_blank">Jesse Lee</a> beginning in 1793. So we've been at this almost as many years as the denomination.<br />
Use the comments box to add your questions or observations as we share this journey. It's an exciting time with lots of changes in the air!</div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-9546538440657447642011-11-01T15:16:00.000-04:002011-11-01T15:16:15.386-04:00"I am a Witness"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32.0pt; margin-right: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32.0pt; margin-right: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Today is “All Saints Day” among Christians all around the globe. It’s a chance to celebrate the witness of lives who encourage us in our own faith journeys.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32.0pt; margin-right: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> “Witness” is such a powerful word and concept that Nike picked up for their “swoosh campaign. Lebron James became a “star” in one of the Nike commercials The ad campaign’s use of religious language in interesting and, I’m sure, intentional. It builds an origin myth </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(</span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Before he was even out of high school, </span></i><a href="http://sneakernews.com/2009/11/07/nba-feet-lebron-james-nike-air-max-lebron-vii-nfw-red-carpet/"><i><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">LeBron James</span></span></i></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> was already a household name, and by the time he was taken number 1 overall in the NBA Draft, the expectations for greatness were inevitable …. The eighteen year-old was built like a hardened veteran in his prime and his skill-set and athleticism had arguably never been seen in a player of his stature”</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">) The ad develops a heroic quest narrative (“</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As we follow LeBron’s ongoing quest for an NBA ring”)</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> It appropriates religious authority (“the King James legend grows daily”). And it rallies disciples </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(“Since he first came into our awareness, we have all been “witnesses”</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">). * Watch this:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/KbpAIAew2DY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32.0pt; margin-right: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32.0pt; margin-right: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Do you know Jesus well enough to get this excited? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32.0pt; margin-right: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Do WE know Jesus well enough to offer this kind of rousing endorsement?</span><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32.0pt; margin-right: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Is what we're witnessing to worth saying, "watch this?"</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.0pt; margin-bottom: 22.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It’s easy to settle for a watered down witness, to say what we think we ought to say rather than proclaim our experience of God’s goodness. Sometimes a bumper sticker’s all you’ve got to go by. WWJD is not a bad thought exercise. But it’s not very satisfying soul food. Apparently, Steve Jobs was leery of the WWJD effect. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook took the microphone at a memorial tribute to Steve Jobs at the company’s campus last week, he shared a piece of advice Jobs gave him before his death on Oct. 5. “Among his last advice he had for me, and for all of you, was to never ask what he would do. ‘Just do what’s right,’” Cook said. Jobs wanted Apple to avoid the trap that Walt Disney Co. fell into after the death of its iconic founder. </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The article goes on: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[Jeffrey] Sonnenfeld said. “He was constantly breaking glass and moving forward. Walt Disney was surrounded by a cadre of creative people who were every bit the equal of Jobs’s lieutenants, but they became haunted by the question, ‘What would Walt do?’ </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">… Jobs told Isaacson that one of his great hopes was that Apple would remain as innovative and committed to product excellence after his death.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.0pt; margin-bottom: 22.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: normal;">I think that Jesus wanted that too: innovation in the face of challenges, excellance in serving God. Otherwise, what was “I go so that you may do greater things” about? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: normal;">If I had to figure that out just in my own head or with my own hands, I think I’d be in trouble. But the lives of the excellance seeking saints who have gone before, and the community of innovative saints all around get me excited. I see the best of what people are doing in the name of Jesus, and pray “God help me to be one too.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><!--StartFragment--> <div class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color: #434343;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A Prayer for All Saints Day</span></span></u></b><b><span style="color: #434343;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> by Safiyah Fosua<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><!--EndFragment--> <div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We give you thanks, O God, for all the saints who ever worshiped you</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Whether in brush arbors or cathedrals,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We give you thanks, O God, for hands lifted in praise: </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Manicured hands and hands stained with grease or soil, </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Strong hands and those gnarled with age </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Holy hands </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Used as wave offerings across the land.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> We thank you, God, for hardworking saints; Whether hard-hatted </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> or steel-booted, Head ragged or aproned, </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Blue-collared or three-piece-suited </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> They left their mark on the earth for you, for us, for our children to come.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thank you, God, for the tremendous sacrifices made by those who have gone before us.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Bless the memories of your saints, God. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> May we learn how to walk wisely </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> from their examples of faith, dedication, worship, and love.***</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">*Nike as quotations from </span></span><a href="http://www.sneakernews.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">www.sneakernews.com</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32.0pt; margin-right: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">**Peter Burrows, </span></span><span style="color: #5b5b5b;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Published: October 25, Washington Post</span></span><span style="color: #434343;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/apples-jobs-told-cook-not-to-ask-what-would-steve-do-">http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/apples-jobs-told-cook-not-to-ask-what-would-steve-do-</a></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">***www.gbod.org</div><!--EndFragment--> </div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-82872578137964140502011-08-27T09:34:00.001-04:002011-08-27T09:38:35.219-04:00Calm before the storm<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi_xmSVSCbDd12_msmH45oR4JawNxcKRcjgYB96xj18MiowpEvYAtTV4jFpMsnegYHAWEYHNHE0C1wB-9TbGHMyMV_o0D4GFN-zYg-k3kQ8cGnhe6sLHmMuTvdP8ZWYW6zCa1DNfjvbgk/s1600/calm+before+storm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi_xmSVSCbDd12_msmH45oR4JawNxcKRcjgYB96xj18MiowpEvYAtTV4jFpMsnegYHAWEYHNHE0C1wB-9TbGHMyMV_o0D4GFN-zYg-k3kQ8cGnhe6sLHmMuTvdP8ZWYW6zCa1DNfjvbgk/s320/calm+before+storm.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">milestoknowhere.com </td></tr>
</tbody></table>Today is probably not the first time most of us mid-Mainers have experieced the calm before the storm. While the ariways are already raging with pictures and projections of Hurricane Irene's impact, we sit under a hazy sky blanket in reasonably cool air, puttering at normal Saturday activities: yard work, art shows, funerals..... that intersect with preparations for what may come.<br />
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I think about what my island of calm is and whether its one that will carry me through a storm as well as being there on the other side.<br />
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Yesterday, as part of the General Conference Delegation's worship, We Hyun Chang asked us to contemplate "what is saving you?" Hearing it in the first tense, rather than past or future, reframes the notion. What is life-giving in our life, our community, or our world? For me, its emerging partners in ministry and art. What is saving you? What is saving us?<br />
Preparing for a hurricane is a good time to remember how saving the physical body of Christ is. I've been checking in with beloved seasonal residents today, seeing where a hand might help. Others are calling older community residents or those who live independently and might could use some neighborly partnering.<br />
In all things, God is a present island of inspiration and energy, our calm in the storm.<br />
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</div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-29653839941239293252011-08-01T17:17:00.000-04:002011-08-01T17:17:35.934-04:00hiatus<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The Blog will be taking a rejevenating break and returning in late August to partner with the new readfieldumc.org site. Blessed Summer Days!<br />
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If you need in formation on activites at the Readfield United MEthodist Church, please contact the church office, 207-685-4211</div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-72093435624870673702011-07-12T15:21:00.001-04:002011-07-12T15:25:11.329-04:00DOWNstairs UPdate<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">….everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> -Ezra 1: 5b </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYxNNZ09xt0Z2u7ARVq-DOc4llg6AIjCR3nE3C6qeX0fVJZLKSrAv7lorbFTiFKTv2uXZVUuzHUI8RiGiX0cSjEWqqdo6mff8PhveN5OMZ0uyC8u5OGJAqX6diMejPSMbQjiYLIWq8XF4/s1600/IMGP7398.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYxNNZ09xt0Z2u7ARVq-DOc4llg6AIjCR3nE3C6qeX0fVJZLKSrAv7lorbFTiFKTv2uXZVUuzHUI8RiGiX0cSjEWqqdo6mff8PhveN5OMZ0uyC8u5OGJAqX6diMejPSMbQjiYLIWq8XF4/s200/IMGP7398.JPG" width="150" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After a very busy couple of weeks, the renovation project is taking a breathe, though not a nap, for a few days. Larry and Paul were in framing windows today. Its been an interesting time of intersections. Most of this weeks' workers are being fed by Sara Munson over at Camp Mechuwana (thumbs up on the pizza). Buzz,<span id="goog_163636311"></span><span id="goog_163636312"></span> who reconfigured our spare front door, is one of our UMVIM co-workers from the Slidell, LA site, though he calls Ohio home. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Dusty (an apt name for meeting over a pile of drywall shavings) came with a group from Pembrooke, VA. His pastor and yours discovered a beloved mutual friend. This group also made the glad discovery that The Apple Shed is now offering nichey cupcakes-yum.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzm9e4uh29lYhPhIlE-m3acY-a7ZgUuKHf3_2QcMWRWFK_uFuI8awgbx74zrxFI3dHm4oYCEIUd6feoqq2LIPABDZ19-sE_BkzBUbQp1bPyL9guI9Etr_FvTRFROBKkdSdbOeYBuf5VvM/s1600/IMGP7399.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzm9e4uh29lYhPhIlE-m3acY-a7ZgUuKHf3_2QcMWRWFK_uFuI8awgbx74zrxFI3dHm4oYCEIUd6feoqq2LIPABDZ19-sE_BkzBUbQp1bPyL9guI9Etr_FvTRFROBKkdSdbOeYBuf5VvM/s200/IMGP7399.JPG" width="150" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Jeff and I spent a day with cousin Tom, also from Ohio, a student at the wooden boat school (Ask me for a look at the bronze cast ammonite he made me!). Tom supports a village outside Port au Prince, Haiti and caught us up on life there. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Can you follow the lines of Methodist connection being drawn?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> We arrived back in Readfield just in time to join the Wed. night crew: staining, measuring (2x) & cutting (1x) heating covers, sweeping up dry wall dust, prepping window wells. The storm didn't keep a dozen from ages 12 to ??? from pitching in. We're now up to 49 pairs of helping hands. You can add yours Thursday night, July 14, as we clean up in time for this Sat's supper. Stop by and say hi to this week's Ohio missioners too. They'll be building a new ramp into the Jesse Lee Meeting House.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Millard Fuller once wrote, "<i>Maybe, just maybe, God wants to use "the theology of the hammer" as a means to draw His divergent family closer together. Perhaps God is calling us to issue a joint invitation to "the strangers" of this world to come in and enjoy the abundant life that Jesus said he came to bring." </i></span><br />
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</span>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-47648543437278544642011-06-16T18:49:00.003-04:002011-06-16T22:23:43.085-04:00Measure Twice, Cut Once<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">measure twice</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Carpenters have a number of handy rules for making a project come out,,, well, functional. Measure twice, cut once is the one I always remember (having measured once and cut twice </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">way</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> too many times). </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">cut once</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Noah knew,</span> </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "<i>Build yourself a ship from teakwood. Make rooms in it. Coat it with pitch inside and out. Make it 450 feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. </i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i></i> -Genesis 6:14-16</span><br />
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</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Project Manager Jeff’s favorite rule for mission teams is </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">ten fingers, ten toes</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">, the same number in the evening as you start with in the morning. I couln't help but think of that one as I watched George give John a gun saftey update in the entry hall.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Another biblical insight, safety first on site! <i>When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof to make it safe so that someone doesn't fall off and die and your family become responsible for the death.</i>- </span><u><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+22:8&version=MSG"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Deuteronomy 22:8</span></a></span></u><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><u><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+22:8&version=MSG"></a></span></u><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span>These other Mr. Munson rules may come in handy as the project moves on:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">All work is noble.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Excellence in the enemy of good enough</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. </span></div></div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-91090308033026632792011-06-16T18:33:00.002-04:002011-06-16T22:28:42.267-04:00Theology of the Hammer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_952671312"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Jordan"><span id="goog_1289801940"></span>Clarence Jordan</a><span id="goog_1289801941"></span> was known for inviting folks into the “God Movement,” It was his term for the Kingdom of God. In the 1950s & 60s, Jordan pointed out that most Christians were more interested in comfortable rituals and familiar scripture readings than actually doing applying holy insights to the world. (My favorite definition of a prophet is not one who predicts the future but one who challenges God’s people to be God’s partners in creating it). </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jordan & Fuller at Koinania Farms</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Never one to sit still his friend and follower <a href="http://www.habitat.org/how/millard.aspx?tgs=Ni8xNi8yMDExIDU6MTc6NTcgUE0%3d">Millard Fuller </a>began Habitat for Humanity (and later <a href="http://www.fullercenter.org/millardfuller">The Fuller Center for Housing</a>-ask Lynn Twitchell about their programs!) and the God Movement picked up the theology of the hammer. Millard left a thriving business a tthe age of 29 to serve the poor. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Our Christian faith demands that we do more than just talk about faith and sing about love.” </i>In other words, we’ve got to get out of our navel gazing kumbaya circles to be Christ’s living body in the world. Once the Spirit “comes by here,” we’ve got to move on out there.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">That’s probably why mission trips are so powerful. We get to:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">1. get off our duffs </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">2. let someone else know we love them with Christ’s heart.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">teamwork</td></tr>
</tbody></table> Plus there’s no better way to get to know someone than swinging a hammer/washing dishes/sanding drywall/dishing beans/finger-painting with children/________________(fill in the blank). These photos are a glimpse of the theology of the hammer at work among us this summer.<br />
Every study I know of confirms the common sense wisdom that men build relationship most comfortably and naturally when they are working side by side. (We women are grateful to work as your partners in this community!) What difference might it make if more churches took up crow bars and hammers as faith tools?<br />
Of course real koinania (Christian fellowship) only begins working side by side. It grows as the community under construction opens itself up and out. Our renovation is a forward thinking exercise in discipleship. The relationships that are also under construction are being strengthened for the next, harder, and even more joyous work of creating a new generations of disciples, of all ages, for the transformation of the world.<br />
We can count our new disciple growing spaces-1...2....3.<br />
What can we count on as our goals for their purpose?<br />
More professions of faith in Christ? What's our 2011/12 goal? The possibiities are practically endless.<br />
More calls to ministry-I believe we can cultivate the call of 5 new Lay Speakers in the next year and at least 3 ministers in the next five years to serve local congregations as Licenced Local Pastors and Ordained Elders or Deacons. (BTW, when's the last time you sent encouragement to our person in process now, Tom Frey? Please pray for him as he moves to serve People's UMC in South Portland.)<br />
More intentional growth of everyday, extraordinary, side by side gifts as we learn to recognize and encourgae the gifts the Spirit gives us. <br />
Like those hammering in faith this summer!<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The word of God came to Solomon saying, "About this Temple you are building—what's important is that you live the way I've set out for you and do what I tell you.</i> -</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings+6:11&version=MSG"><u><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">1 Kings 6:11</span></span></u></a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rocko positioning.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">insulators</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO2BBEHopRsrlYHJS0-B9OY0Z2UaQDOrbg_q8sHyjZm3_o5j05HSf5qZMQ3D_K1gIf0NjNNZcDzOY-07MbFQgYY6H4TpeNGGHGnyCm7Q0B66GInbqw8nl2_BR4fAk8IvMOXprNrYPZKpY/s1600/prepping+for+the+next+supper%253F.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO2BBEHopRsrlYHJS0-B9OY0Z2UaQDOrbg_q8sHyjZm3_o5j05HSf5qZMQ3D_K1gIf0NjNNZcDzOY-07MbFQgYY6H4TpeNGGHGnyCm7Q0B66GInbqw8nl2_BR4fAk8IvMOXprNrYPZKpY/s200/prepping+for+the+next+supper%253F.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">prepping for the next supper?</td></tr>
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</div></div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-59594675392088750522011-06-02T09:51:00.000-04:002011-06-02T09:51:22.666-04:00#1 in a (pre-fathers day) series on Men and Church.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 17px;">When we were out in Colorado Springs for a family wedding last June, I overheard several young men talking about going to church with the specific purpose of finding “good” wives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(In the same conversation they were pretty explicit that the same rules of “goodness” didn’t apply to their own behavior.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJAvmrrZrgKWitjYrF4T8tAgA1YFSXydaHDKGhW2WwEynFcyQNkFvtCwv9mV9RPPuLn0kopLaB54mL6OyDpHIIYTMVNl-XKRNWkplI8JIQq-th9FE3LHG7_UlJW0c7RgXDtiOfHElkmKQ/s1600/men+under+constrcution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJAvmrrZrgKWitjYrF4T8tAgA1YFSXydaHDKGhW2WwEynFcyQNkFvtCwv9mV9RPPuLn0kopLaB54mL6OyDpHIIYTMVNl-XKRNWkplI8JIQq-th9FE3LHG7_UlJW0c7RgXDtiOfHElkmKQ/s1600/men+under+constrcution.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Recent articles have me watching for where our men folk tend to plug into church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The steady stream in and out of Fellowship Hall under renovation suggests that anything having to do with deconstruction or power tools is popular. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we also have a higher percentage of men than most small churches singing in choir and participating in committees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So how are our guys’ experiences similar to or different from “averages.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZKzJvq9bo18JDkx4wUgOVxrfKqbI5IrltUglsqdL1YQpRgNDMsr8d2sHW7LwxvUzDDJGL5CXzzv4zz17x6pVICP8ITkI06x_Dt4arasFqFcAlnYF_OxxktTJ4_v_1AI5kxhN1HknpyI/s1600/men+hate+to+go.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZKzJvq9bo18JDkx4wUgOVxrfKqbI5IrltUglsqdL1YQpRgNDMsr8d2sHW7LwxvUzDDJGL5CXzzv4zz17x6pVICP8ITkI06x_Dt4arasFqFcAlnYF_OxxktTJ4_v_1AI5kxhN1HknpyI/s1600/men+hate+to+go.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Why do or “don’t men go to church?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>asks blogger Doug Lawrence. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David Murrow in his book </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Hate-Going-Church/dp/0785260382/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306502804&sr=8-1"><b><i><span style="color: #0a2d53; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Why Men Hate Church</span></i></b></a><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"> suggests that many men see Christianity as being incongruous with their manhood. Maybe so, says Lawrence, “but the church is probably at least partially to blame for this. “ He says churches make 3 mistakes:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"> 1. We place a higher emphasis on children than fathers. </span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">2. We forget to celebrate and thank men as much as women.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">3. We sing too much!</span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">What do you (especially the men among us) think?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Does our church’s life make room for what helps you grow in Christ and find a place in community?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What does and what might?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Are you feeling neglected?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so, what forms of encouragement do you find most meaningful?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Here’s what Lawrence goes on to say: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(http://www.churchcentral.com/blog/5791/3-Ways-We-re-Failing-Fathers-in-the-Church)</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">(1)…churches that place a high priority on having fathers being highly active in their children’s programs appear (general observation in the field) to have larger numbers of men in their general church population. Says Christian researcher, George Barna, "Women are almost twice as likely as men" to teach Sunday school. What’s wrong with women teaching children? Nothing, but what are we doing to give permission to men to also be nurturers and be active role models for children? <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">(2)….In some ways we play into a feminine stereotype of being all soft and mushy on Mother’s Day, but find it difficult to affirm fathers with at least a modicum of sentimentality and encouragement. Even men need a little motivation toward their personal worthiness and leadership role in the home and church.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">(3)—Men sing less than women in general, don’t mind singing if the keys of songs reflect the average range of their voices, don’t mind music that accompanies something else...like a movie for example, hate standing for 20 minutes and singing—period. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">-Pastor "Eager to hear your thoughts" Karen</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Coming soon #2 in the series, "Millard Fuller's Theology of the Hammer"</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
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</div><!--EndFragment--> </div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-69821951060554652962011-05-16T16:44:00.000-04:002011-05-16T16:44:09.765-04:00The Book that Changed the World<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 19px;">by Charles Piddock</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The great Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, who died in 1986, once said: “I have always imagined that Heaven will be a kind of library.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB6QE1fAJXZGFrFXh7Y6qtLRfMN8wgr6gqm3sS0bOoq5gsd4w9ETyK_b6Eqa1t22aeQB9em8NRerFI_We0mUqJwrXNZNq1sOMyQP6YU4vQ-EMFGHPHTmgiDMq9aOsHUJ0uI5pUihIwlUE/s1600/bible+class.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB6QE1fAJXZGFrFXh7Y6qtLRfMN8wgr6gqm3sS0bOoq5gsd4w9ETyK_b6Eqa1t22aeQB9em8NRerFI_We0mUqJwrXNZNq1sOMyQP6YU4vQ-EMFGHPHTmgiDMq9aOsHUJ0uI5pUihIwlUE/s1600/bible+class.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Interesting idea. If it is true, at the very center of that celestial library, for English speakers at least, would be one shining work of genius: the King James Bible. Over the past four centuries, this book has transcended numerous generations, impacted millions of people, and greatly influenced our culture. It is simply impossible to overestimate or exaggerate its influence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The King James Bible was born (maybe we should say “begat”) on May 2, 1611---the product of seven years labor by a remarkable group of 54 scholars. Your program this morning has a brief insert telling the story of how it came to be made.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Let me begin where the insert ends, and focus on its influence in English-speaking America---not at the very beginning in Jamestown (settled in 1607, before the King James Bible) or Plymouth in 1620, where the Puritans used the favorite Puritan text, the Geneva Bible. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">An Early Best-Seller<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_wywDVPceOs7i5UMzBuRSrm-xN-pD9vPUFxoHYh52v8U9mfAcPeowg9Mv16rW5Fav1Nf0KE9frXhHhOkjKD-xnziTB4btoFDfDhHubvuFKtH0ieTAdgoffLJ30IwIQP7JysjIwOUFXYM/s1600/KJB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_wywDVPceOs7i5UMzBuRSrm-xN-pD9vPUFxoHYh52v8U9mfAcPeowg9Mv16rW5Fav1Nf0KE9frXhHhOkjKD-xnziTB4btoFDfDhHubvuFKtH0ieTAdgoffLJ30IwIQP7JysjIwOUFXYM/s200/KJB.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">As English settlers began pouring into the colonies, however, the bible they brought with them was not the Geneva Bible, but the King James Bible. In the 18<sup>th</sup> century it was universally used in the colonies---and it was a best-seller, although all the Bibles were still printed in England and shipped to America. The first English Bibles printed in the colonies were printed in 1771 by Robert Aitken of Philadelphia. When the American Bible Society was founded in the early 1800s, it distributed millions of King James Bibles.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The Bible quickly became the mother’s milk of the new nation. Despite its old-fashioned and sometimes difficult language, not only was the King James Bible read in churches from New England to the western frontier, but it was quoted by politicians, inscribed on public buildings, taught in school reading classes, and read aloud in homes far and wide, often before each meal of the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Millions learned from its carefully crafted words how sentences should be written, how stories should be told, and how to use elevated words for solemn events.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">(Even at the time it was first put together, the KJB was deliberately old fashioned in grammar and phraseology; an expression like “yea, verily,” for example, had gone out of fashion some 50 years before the translation was made. The translators didn’t want their Bible to sound contemporary, because they knew that contemporary quickly goes out of fashion.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Made to be Read Aloud<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In early America the King James Bible was most often read aloud, as its translators intended. It used simple concrete words and punctuation to establish an oral prose rhythm and pace suitable for the divine story it told, blending simplicity and majesty, as in Luke 2, verses 7 to 10:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“And she brought forth her first born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said until them, Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The words in the passage are simple; they tell a story, and are just enough words to tell the story as its subject demands, no more, no less.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Luke 11, verses 9 and 10, provides another such example: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth; and he the seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Copyreaders today often say you should never begin a sentence with “and.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And</i> yet the KJB does this constantly: In the book of Genesis, for example, there are 31 verses in the opening chapter. Twenty-nine of them begin with And. And God did this. And God did that. </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Auditory Imagination<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The effect of the punctuation, and also the use of “and” and “or” to establish a rhythm, is designed to capture the hearer’s ear, and though the ear, the imagination. It is what the poet T.S. Eliot, in talking about the King James Bible, calls the Bible’s evocation of the “auditory imagination,” the feeling for syllable and rhythm, penetrating far below the conscious levels of thought and feeling, invigorating every word;…”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The celebrated American journalist Dorothy Thompson was aware of this as a child:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEaMrHmRWX3IC6i3J8SwRiiH5R_Ec2vpAbmYSTpB34fWcd0m2hib-EzujlWOf2dAFimD7xcq1y4fW3x5aqZT-II_RTwAZ69eNERfiRaPh9VlEdUdx8QS14cCyX2Hgg3N0ytYjokoAaAwc/s1600/bible+with+hands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEaMrHmRWX3IC6i3J8SwRiiH5R_Ec2vpAbmYSTpB34fWcd0m2hib-EzujlWOf2dAFimD7xcq1y4fW3x5aqZT-II_RTwAZ69eNERfiRaPh9VlEdUdx8QS14cCyX2Hgg3N0ytYjokoAaAwc/s1600/bible+with+hands.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">“Every morning before breakfast we assembled in the sitting room and my father read a passage from the King James Bible, followed by a prayer….Somewhere, as my father read, I became excitedly aware of something more than the story: of the beauty and glory of the words; of the images they can evoke and the thoughts they can enkindle.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Every American president in the early days of the Republic had his feeling for words shaped by the King James Bible, perhaps none so much as Abraham Lincoln:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“A house divided against itself cannot stand,” used by Lincoln in his acceptance speech for the candidacy for the Senate, was taken directly from Mark 3, verse 25. There is no better illustration of Lincoln’s indebtedness to the King James Bible than his Gettysburg Address. The address is overwhelmingly biblical, with 269 of its 272 words appearing in some form in the Bible:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty…”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The formula threescore and fourscore occurs dozens of times in the KJV, with Psalm 90:10 coming closest to Lincoln’s opening phrase: “The days of our years are threescore and ten. Also, Lincoln’s use of “conceived” and “brought forth” comes from Old Testament prophets and the nativity story in the Gospels. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">‘I Have a Dream’<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhAf0fhzjUEvZeBPPpd9kL3-MP04aB8VJHu3_lxvdPUXqEXipoAcXP5L-vXSfutFsvUNwEKMhWZ-x5RIo5fxI30vuqHo7Y3lPiriyI7mQ2-QfPyybZwAhv55qc_NDaiBe28eZI-oE9jkg/s1600/MLking+Jr.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhAf0fhzjUEvZeBPPpd9kL3-MP04aB8VJHu3_lxvdPUXqEXipoAcXP5L-vXSfutFsvUNwEKMhWZ-x5RIo5fxI30vuqHo7Y3lPiriyI7mQ2-QfPyybZwAhv55qc_NDaiBe28eZI-oE9jkg/s1600/MLking+Jr.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The most famous referencing of the King James Bible by an orator in modern times is found in Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, which he delivered on August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The King James Bible lives on in this speech, partly in the elevated style and affective undertow of the speech and partly in explicit allusions. Amos 5:24 is present as King declaims, “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Isiaih 40: 4—5 asserts its presence when King said: “I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 27.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">American Writers<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 27.0pt;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Of course, the King James Bible has also been a major influence in American writers, from Melville to Faulkner to Hemingway to Toni Morrison to many others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 27.0pt;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Eudory Welty: “How many of us, the South’s writers-to-be of my generation, were blessed…in not having gone deprived of the King James Version of the Bible. Its cadence entered into our ears and our memories for good. The evidence lingers in all our books.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 27.0pt;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Like other major novelists, Toni Morrison has taken some of her novel titles from the Bible: such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Song of Solomon</i>. Her fictional characters often bear biblical names---Magdalene, Ruth, Pilate, and Hagar in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Song of Solomon</i>, for example.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The Bible wasn’t part of my reading,” says Morrison, “it was part of my life.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Our Common Speech<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The King James Bible not only influenced writers and speech makers; it also has entered our common speech through a number of expressions. Biblical phrases have entered the language so seamlessly that many people don’t even realize from whence they come, yet they use them nearly every day. The list is practically endless. In fact, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bartlett’s Bible Quotations</i>---a separate volume of currently used phrases, all taken from the King James Bible---is over 200 pages long.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Here’s just a sample: </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">sour grapes, </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">fatted calf; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">drop in a bucket; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">skin of one’s teeth; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">apple of one’s eye; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">girded loins; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">feet of clay; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">whited sepulchers; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">filthy lucre; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">pearls before swine; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">fly in the ointment; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">fight the good fight; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">eat, drink, and be merry; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Am I my brother’s keeper?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">And more:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The Land of the living (Job 28:13)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">At their wits end (ps. 107: 27)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">There is no new thing under the sun (Eccles. 1:9)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The salt of the earth (Matt. 5:13)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The signs of the times (Matt. 13:57)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In the twinkling of an eye (1Cor. 15:52)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The root of the matter (Job 19:28)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Fire and brimstone (Ps 11:6)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">A law unto themselves (Rom. 2:14)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Labor of love (1 Thess. 1:3) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">As a lamb to the slaughter (Isa. 53:7)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Fell flat on his face (Num. 22:31)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Divinely Inspired<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Why has this book been so singularly successful and monumentally influential? How did a committee of 54 scholars at the beginning of the 17<sup>th</sup> century produce such a lasting masterpiece? Without a doubt, divine inspiration played a role: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">“The translation was extraordinarily well done,” wrote George Bernard Shaw, himself an atheist, “because to the translators what they were translating was not merely a curious collection of ancient books written by different authors in different stages of culture, but the word of God divinely revealed through His chosen and expressly inspired scribes. In this conviction they carried out their work with boundless reverence and care and achieved a beautifully artistic result…they made a translation so magnificent that to this day the common [person] accepts and worships it as a single book by a single author, the book being the Book of Books and the author being God.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">As a postscript, here are some KJV facts: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo7; text-indent: -.25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">An estimated 1 billion or more copies have been published since 1611.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo7; text-indent: -.25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">It contains 788,258 total words, of which 14,565 are unique<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo7; text-indent: -.25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The original book was very large: approximately 17 inches tall, 30 inches wide when opened, and it weighed around 30 pounds<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo7; text-indent: -.25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The first 1611 Bibles were expensive and were chained to the front pulpit of churches, to prevent them from being stolen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo7; text-indent: -.25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">169 original 1611 King James Bibles are in existence today<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><br />
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</div><!--EndFragment--> </div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-56705816503508036052011-05-16T16:30:00.002-04:002011-05-16T16:32:01.532-04:00King James Bible: Origins<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%;">The Making of the King James Bible<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> by Charles Piddock</o:p></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRjuyCdd5zRfLIergQqNRED3hhFvLEdkXaG5S_FQa5qcQbsF26kifFdXWQBokUYG0GUwrhxjReTjahFejg9h3MB3D4GJ89mfgohVGYkstBbJ-MaINxlckuO_LFZJJ7zvZGoCKzL4O16bs/s1600/king+james+bookplate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRjuyCdd5zRfLIergQqNRED3hhFvLEdkXaG5S_FQa5qcQbsF26kifFdXWQBokUYG0GUwrhxjReTjahFejg9h3MB3D4GJ89mfgohVGYkstBbJ-MaINxlckuO_LFZJJ7zvZGoCKzL4O16bs/s200/king+james+bookplate.jpg" width="160" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">Slightly over 400 years ago, on May 2, 1611, a new translation of the Bible came off the press in England. Those opening its covers first came upon, not the book of Genesis and the creation of the world, but a fulsome dedication to King James penned by Miles Smith, Bishop of Gloucester. The dedication was addressed: “To the most high and mighty prince JAMES by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. The Translators of the Bible wish Grace, Mercy, and Peace through JESUS CHRIST our Lord.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">The newly translated Bible was “the authorized” version, meaning it was authorized to be used in churches by King James, but it wasn’t long before it acquired the name it has today: the “King James Bible.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">James, in fact, had a lot to do with the Bible that now bears his name. He ascended the throne of Scotland as James VI during a time when religious passions were high. In Scotland, he was constantly badgered by quarreling Presbyterians who did not believe in the divine right of kings or the concept of bishops, which they felt was a vile Catholic practice that had nothing to do with true worship. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Religious Differences<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgovAJ0ny6d1ZtFC6hhyphenhyphenglG6cZBLu_4SlyUnrZtj0zaXE0n5s_1UzbEEd-UToLlcBcIL164IBLVJ6EVe6i8ayKzMhKIaqAxpHyKyohNjSWQg2hpMzXs7iyrQkEfxfTdNHFCF5Zkc2xtNTI/s1600/King+james.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgovAJ0ny6d1ZtFC6hhyphenhyphenglG6cZBLu_4SlyUnrZtj0zaXE0n5s_1UzbEEd-UToLlcBcIL164IBLVJ6EVe6i8ayKzMhKIaqAxpHyKyohNjSWQg2hpMzXs7iyrQkEfxfTdNHFCF5Zkc2xtNTI/s320/King+james.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">When Elizabeth I died, James, who was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the closest living relative of Elizabeth, was elevated to the throne of England as James I. He could not have been more delighted. England, of course, was a much richer country than Scotland. Its climate was a great deal better, and it was a great European power. But England, as Scotland, suffered from religious quarrels and divisions. The country was safely Protestant, due to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, but the Protestants continually argued and fought amongst themselves. Calvinists and Puritans, in particular, felt that the English established church retained too many Catholic elements and wanted it purified. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">This religious difference also included the English bibles churches used. The Bishops’ Bible, published in 1568 by leaders in the Church of England by the authority of Queen Elizabeth, was the official Bible used in churches. The Geneva Bible, produced in 1560 by exiled Protestant leaders in Geneva, Switzerland, had been adopted and embraced as the bible of the Puritans and others who followed Calvinism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">The Conference at Hampton Court<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">James felt that he was appointed by God to bring agreement and harmony to these Protestant factions. Accordingly, in January 1604, the king convened a conference of church leaders at Hampton Court palace to look for ways to calm religious differences. (The conference was originally scheduled to take place in 1603, but an outbreak of bubonic plague in London caused Church leaders to flee into the safety of the countryside.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"> At the Hampton Court conference, John Reynolds, the head of the English Puritan Church, proposed a new English translation of the scriptures. Reynolds said that such a translation would go a long way toward uniting the churches and people of England. James received Reynolds’ proposal with alacrity and the king ordered English church leaders to begin work on the new Bible translation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">The first step was to pick the men who would translate the new Bible from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Later that year, James approved a list of 54 prospective “revisers,” from which 47 Translators (capitalized) were selected. They were divided into six committees, called “companies” working separately at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge. Each of the committees was to take a different part of the bible to translate.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">A Distinguished Group<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">The Translators were a distinguished group. They included such men as Lancelot Andrewes (1555—1626), dean of Westminster, later Bishop of Winchester, and a scholar of some 15 ancient and modern languages. It was said of Andrewes that he could have been “interpreter general” at the Tower of Babel; John Overall (1561—1619), dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral and former regius professor of divinity at Cambridge; Miles Smith (1554—1624), expert in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and eventual author of the Bible’s preface. Dr. Smith was a man so impatient that he had famously walked out of boring sermon and went off to a pub; the Puritan leader John Reynolds (1549—1607) mentioned above, who was president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and a number of scholars too long to mention here. The chief overseer of the project was Richard Bancroft (1544—1610), Archbishop of Canterbury.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">King James, in his instructions to the Translators said he did not want creativity or invention in the translation. What he cared about was clarity, simplicity and (very important!) doctrinal orthodoxy. The translators worked hard at these instructions; yet they also spent a lot of time adjusting and tweaking each word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph in the text in the interest of euphony and musicality. After all, this was an age when the Bible was to be read aloud. This was also the age of Shakespeare and Marlowe, the golden age of the English language. Time and time again the words the Translators put into the new Bible almost unconsciously fell into poetic rhythm. The Translators also made use of repetition and even dramatic pauses. Notice how the commas require pauses and help create the rhythm: “In the beginning God created the Heaven, and the Earth. And the Earth was without forme, and voyd, and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”<span style="text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Greatest Monument of English Prose<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCLOw4zhdPE01Y_BJM4CxUZJn82kVdE_z3B1W6uyrAb4kztJHLuviFxYkq9V4D77NUBajJD8I9jxEib6m1nxQDV0gnBhk9fXcFORytqKZaT7q45Dn4K0gycUqerdcQGhJp21qsSX357Ms/s1600/King+James+Bible.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCLOw4zhdPE01Y_BJM4CxUZJn82kVdE_z3B1W6uyrAb4kztJHLuviFxYkq9V4D77NUBajJD8I9jxEib6m1nxQDV0gnBhk9fXcFORytqKZaT7q45Dn4K0gycUqerdcQGhJp21qsSX357Ms/s1600/King+James+Bible.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">It took seven years of translating, arguing, debating and fine-tuning until the bible was printed in 1611. What emerged (after most of the typos of the first printing were corrected) is now recognized by some as perhaps the greatest monument of English prose and poetry. According to British writer Adam Nicolson, the King James Bible “is not the poetry of a single mind, nor the effusion of a singular vision, nor even the product of a single moment, but the child of an entire culture stretching back to the great Jewish poets and storytellers of the Near Eastern Bronze Age.” The Bible has “a sense of an entirely embraced and reimagined past.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">“[The] translation was driven by the idea of a constant present, the feeling that the riches, beauties, failings and sufferings of Jacobean England were part of the same world as the one in which Job, David or the Evangelists walked. The KJ translators could write their English words as if the passage of 1,600 or 3,000 years made no difference. Their subject was neither ancient nor modern, but both or either. It was the universal text.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">The Anniversary Year<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .25in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">In the 400 years since its first printing, the King James Bible has consciously and unconsciously influenced just about every American writer from Walt Whitman to Abraham Lincoln to William Faulkner to Toni Morrison. Its phrases have entered into the common tongue to stay. In this anniversary year, hundreds of events are scheduled in Britain, the United States and other English-speaking countries this year to celebrate the King James Bible. They include lectures, reading marathons, symposia, concerts, conferences and television documentaries. Here in America, celebrations are scheduled in Texas, Kentucky and Louisiana. A conference at Ohio State University will explore the influence of the KJB on writers such as William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf and Toni Morrison.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-23686902346135575342011-05-05T08:33:00.000-04:002011-05-05T08:33:52.677-04:00Thoughts of Three Men<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN-UhEierOyYQXSsUsO26_5vp47G4JB1qpW0m-yWAm7iRs0YBiHq2_VSabRNGc90U-FveviPTv0g976pef5nbuWrDH-sQzTv1AvRXv9Cd64WkUr5daZGEJ7voItKAMb8CZ0ToUiCrYS1c/s1600/Etty+2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN-UhEierOyYQXSsUsO26_5vp47G4JB1qpW0m-yWAm7iRs0YBiHq2_VSabRNGc90U-FveviPTv0g976pef5nbuWrDH-sQzTv1AvRXv9Cd64WkUr5daZGEJ7voItKAMb8CZ0ToUiCrYS1c/s200/Etty+2.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">www.EttyPlay.org</td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Yesterday I sat mesmerized with the student body and faculty of Kents Hill School as actress Susan Stein brought the complex Etty Hillesum to life. “Etty’s” writings, diaries and letters to family and friends, are receiving increasing public attention. This very real young women records her inner struggles and daily challenges navigating the Nazi occupation of Holland. She is no stereotypical saint. Depressed, sexually prolific, guilt-ridden by her work for the Jewish Council, work that allows her to keep her own German/Russian Jewish family off the deportation lists, Etty manages, with great effort, to hold wide open her perspective on the tumble of humanity around her.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2jeHQyfYEEmwQn0lWa5UMGsaHfhlq9zOjyxXRAenccsLglsni2GVdCZAwvp_BiWEknxIeeIYWNSK0FsWOwAFh1eomYOiNn2J5QIoIF7EPizTsXiOgGzleyVf_gL4_lM645DS_HMUQ6Ek/s1600/Dutch+Jews.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2jeHQyfYEEmwQn0lWa5UMGsaHfhlq9zOjyxXRAenccsLglsni2GVdCZAwvp_BiWEknxIeeIYWNSK0FsWOwAFh1eomYOiNn2J5QIoIF7EPizTsXiOgGzleyVf_gL4_lM645DS_HMUQ6Ek/s1600/Dutch+Jews.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Buchenwald/BuchenwaldPhotos/DutchJews.jpg">DutchJews.jpg</a> </td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">As I walked back to the office, the character in Etty’s reflection I found myself mulling was a young boy, nameless, who hid when it was his time to be put on the transport train. When one refused, or didn’t show up, many were added, an incentive for the Jewish community to cooperate with the process. Virtual fingers wag at this very young man, failing to go along with smooth and certain march toward annihilation. Who is he to speed the death of so many of his neighbors? What Etty glaringly and intentionally does not say is, of course, the point. What power does he have? What power do they have? Who’s really responsible for this horrible assembly line deconstructing a people? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Inescapably, my contemplative context is the death of Osama Bin Laden, another engine of death and destruction, now taken down with members of his own household who he put at risk. I wonder where and when he made the critical choices that turned such obvious talent and ability into tools of hate, instead of the good he could have done. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">And wrapped around my whole thought process is the Easter season we are in. Could anyone really expect that young Dutch Jew from the 1940s to go as grace-fully to his death? Should we expect him to do what Jesus did or can we grow in our knowing that Jesus’ death puts God in a new relationship with him, and all those others throughout history who were not themselves God, just human beings caught in horrible situations. One of my favorite resurrection images is of all the human beings that ever lived being caught up in the act of God’s life-remaking leap from the grave. Ripped into redemption, it would be hard to resist the flow of the Spirit, to not be overcome by God’s desire to sweep us along in love’s flow. Hard, but not impossible as long as we are the freely created imago dei, not manufactured clay pots. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There’s been a hubbub in Christian circles recently about the notion that God might love everyone too much to ultimately constrain any to hell’s eternity. Personally, I’m glad the scripture tells us to leave those things up to God. What I do know is that the wounds we carry into God’s presence are healed there. Not as though they had never happened, but as though it matters that they did. Healing can be a painful process. Healing requires the willing cooperation of the damaged person with the healer. May we be open to God’s grace and power so that, in our lives, they move the world toward healing. </div></div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-46206440086087547372011-04-25T08:32:00.000-04:002011-04-25T08:32:31.446-04:00Holy Humor Sunday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14pt;">He is risen!</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzZQ9KyiZILECHBnDN161qYlFkFziRmNXwtw1AaKX85E9MFMZspM4axLf0VhNX-18Sa8YEujZUKQHXk-H0Xn2dseUCaYIw6haX5K0G-tcZGvOgrj7gSLrhV-79D6JUAOJv87xK-Pv4EVo/s1600/16794jv9plcm3dy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzZQ9KyiZILECHBnDN161qYlFkFziRmNXwtw1AaKX85E9MFMZspM4axLf0VhNX-18Sa8YEujZUKQHXk-H0Xn2dseUCaYIw6haX5K0G-tcZGvOgrj7gSLrhV-79D6JUAOJv87xK-Pv4EVo/s200/16794jv9plcm3dy.jpg" width="138" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo by Tina Phillips</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14pt;">Worship this coming Sunday will be a celebration of holy humor. Can you imagine Jesus' delight in the world of smiles and smells after three days of sensory deprivation? This Sunday we'll share simple heart lifting joy in living. Please bring </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">a favorite knock-knock joke for the passing of the peace</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"> and a whoopie pie in your choice of flavors for a fun fellowship potluck of flavors! </span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14pt;"><i>Those who live in grace are freed from the necessity of taking themselves, their circumstances, their morality and opinions, their piety and beliefs, too seriously. They are free to laugh and play as children of God. As important as repentance is, we are not saved by our much weeping, any more than we are saved by acts of penitence. And the expression of salvation freely given and received is not weeping but laughter, or at least a weeping become laughter. Laughter and lightheartedness, at their fullest and freest, are the gift of divine grace</i>.<span> </span>-</span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Conrad Hyers</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana;">, </span><i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">And God Created Laughter</span></i></div></div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-65909039481633148342011-04-13T11:38:00.000-04:002011-04-13T11:38:48.199-04:00Pretzel baking activity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNFIjdeJreGRCRsnE33gaF9OcRlLJhyyAgbdjHxLUePD6IOMYSvOvB6Hhjyb2jYdHbxmnCWH9lSgaANqjJWRfEPfYtP3Wwk-49jmgIu4hiQkQU0zfefNb5aU1QAs_ixnmzdQSqde71t6U/s1600/pretzel.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNFIjdeJreGRCRsnE33gaF9OcRlLJhyyAgbdjHxLUePD6IOMYSvOvB6Hhjyb2jYdHbxmnCWH9lSgaANqjJWRfEPfYtP3Wwk-49jmgIu4hiQkQU0zfefNb5aU1QAs_ixnmzdQSqde71t6U/s200/pretzel.jpeg" width="200" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Here's a home lesson for lent, designed for all ages!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Gather family and friends for pretzel baking. Your house will smell wonderful and you'll have a soul feast! </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Why pretzels?</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH1DbKAyitERpTmxQ_O3BSTYE8ouxWESjenRE7inG_F5p5B5kSkIo4-OqrOFk9L0ZUZspOapM9jagjERA-z-oaD812F0KKs48BFv2rP5j_9iWy47a1_V63TqBdWOEmm_BYMCnbwfnGld4/s1600/pretzel+prayer.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH1DbKAyitERpTmxQ_O3BSTYE8ouxWESjenRE7inG_F5p5B5kSkIo4-OqrOFk9L0ZUZspOapM9jagjERA-z-oaD812F0KKs48BFv2rP5j_9iWy47a1_V63TqBdWOEmm_BYMCnbwfnGld4/s200/pretzel+prayer.jpeg" width="156" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 26px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In the 5</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> century, in the region between France and Italy, a monk was playing with dough left over from the daily baking. While he was playing he came up with a unique twist that looked like arms crossed in prayer. This baked "pretiola" was given to children as a reward for their reverence. The treat s</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 26px;">pread to other monasteries over the Alps into Austria and Germany where it came to be known as the "pretzel". </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 26px;">Pretzels became more popular with time and even became a symbol in marriage (broken like a wishbone at the ceremony), They became associated with lent, since they contain no oil or fat, ingredients that ran low in northern pantries toward the end of winter and came to be associated with lenten fasting. </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> In 1652, The first evidence of pretzels in America are in the record of a court case. <i>It seems a baker named Carl Carmer and his wife were charged with selling Pretzels to the Indians. The problem wasn't that the Indians were eating pretzels (which they loved), but that the pretzels were made from the good flour from milling while the bread sold to the good people of Beverwyck, New York was made from the left-overs. As recorded in the town's history "The heathen </i>(sic) <i>were eating flour while the Christians were eating bran."</i> </span><i>In the 1850s, a baker in Lititz, PA gave a drifter a free meal. In return for his kindness the tramp gave the baker a recipe for pretzels that eventually became the recipe of the baker's apprentice - Julius Sturgis. This style of Pretzel became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch Hard Pretzel. </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">(</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;">http://www.hammondpretzels.com/histpret.htm)</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqEfCaUhMDPs0eiG18nlxfkaxf6K6rHZvmzXxEUA4DW-PnQqjaC_M5Er62M9lOtgIwukQcHf1JUhUyPmLod59iDJn0zZpXySrVVUXGFT3dL9qDJGTEVXFJCQT7DgQx_1Qf4AfQoZLV1Mw/s1600/pretzel+making.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqEfCaUhMDPs0eiG18nlxfkaxf6K6rHZvmzXxEUA4DW-PnQqjaC_M5Er62M9lOtgIwukQcHf1JUhUyPmLod59iDJn0zZpXySrVVUXGFT3dL9qDJGTEVXFJCQT7DgQx_1Qf4AfQoZLV1Mw/s200/pretzel+making.jpg" width="119" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Making Pretzels </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Wash your hands and clean your kneading surface!</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>1 package yeast,<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>4 cups flour, 1 ½ cups warm water, 1 tablspoon sugar, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon salt</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Mix the yeast, water, and sugar. Stir in the flour. Knead the dough on a table until it is smooth. Roll the dough out into a “snake”. Shape into a pretzel/praying hands. Brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle with salt. place on grease baking sheets. Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit until browned. </i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br />
</i></div><!--EndFragment--> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5J0U9fEkv1OUpqLAsTrz9MpZPXfXVNocLBjhbo4Ey9GMvLY9xZXw80NrAhivqXQ2vXGCfcy5KhTfesjBL2XSV7kPhQ29WkjKI8NUzz-YY0n2e2gefeYWMSvm4a9oDLz6_QUyJhGi3uFM/s1600/pretzel+prayer+2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5J0U9fEkv1OUpqLAsTrz9MpZPXfXVNocLBjhbo4Ey9GMvLY9xZXw80NrAhivqXQ2vXGCfcy5KhTfesjBL2XSV7kPhQ29WkjKI8NUzz-YY0n2e2gefeYWMSvm4a9oDLz6_QUyJhGi3uFM/s200/pretzel+prayer+2.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;">Pretzel Prayer to share:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"> Dear God, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;">Please bless us as we share these pretzels. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;">Wrap your love around us </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;">and hold us tight </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;">as we learn to pray and to share. AMEN</span></div></div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-86638045832571991102011-03-31T08:27:00.000-04:002011-03-31T08:27:00.919-04:00Mission Moment from Haiti<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Back from Haiti<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-Lynn Twitchell</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL5nVu2Tk7YgAz1Oc_98ISk946KpE1OMwfQR-ROKKXxc46r6J3b_P6my1X1T2npLYv-gU8tqyN_KX2OGdcpgo5K20YJj8guKFIky3cq9E2T6ytibRkxo7cv0gVRHg3iTMA7ejaqO5F1fw/s1600/our+truck+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL5nVu2Tk7YgAz1Oc_98ISk946KpE1OMwfQR-ROKKXxc46r6J3b_P6my1X1T2npLYv-gU8tqyN_KX2OGdcpgo5K20YJj8guKFIky3cq9E2T6ytibRkxo7cv0gVRHg3iTMA7ejaqO5F1fw/s320/our+truck+1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I arrived in Port au Prince and met other team members at the airport. We learned there was a team of engineers going to the same project so we waited outside the airport with them for the rest of our team and to be picked up by Grace International representatives. I learned fast why I was told to wait inside the airport. There were “porters” anxiously waiting for a tip by “helping” us with our bags – whether or not we wanted their help. After a rather long, hot wait and much confusion, our guide and guards arrived with our transport, which we later referred to as “the cage,” picked up 15 members of my team along with 16 members of the other team and our luggage and took us to Carrefour: an hour and a half ride only about 10 miles away. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We pulled up to a locked, metal gate, honked the horn at which the gate was opened and we drove in to see our home: a hospital, still under construction. We stayed on the second floor. I shared a room with the 7 other women on my team. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><!--StartFragment--></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The view from our window was of the tent city which was non-existent before the earthquake. It’s hard to imagine 15,000 people living in an area of less than 10 acres in size. I don’t have to imagine it, I have seen it. I do still find it hard to believe.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><!--StartFragment--></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR4JhhyiSf1XaDzvPvKgOaADVXGerM1HzYqeTGixz5anz28VY7S63sI4mxSHA6z57vUzjT6EYDTJu_WKdc5Rbrg5f9HxCumJe4JXKAFqr-ed4NVmUPBl_iYxmet6tIWEk9ZMvy5o9EtbE/s1600/DSCN0426.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR4JhhyiSf1XaDzvPvKgOaADVXGerM1HzYqeTGixz5anz28VY7S63sI4mxSHA6z57vUzjT6EYDTJu_WKdc5Rbrg5f9HxCumJe4JXKAFqr-ed4NVmUPBl_iYxmet6tIWEk9ZMvy5o9EtbE/s320/DSCN0426.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Grace International is an impressive organization. They have accomplished much, especially when you consider all the obstacles they face being in Haiti. (You may check it out and see for yourself by going to </span><a href="http://www.graceintl.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">http://www.graceintl.org</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">) Our guide and security guards brought us through the tent city at Grace. Tents? Most were tarps (stamped with the organizations that had donated them: USAID, Samaritan’s Purse, UNICEF, etc….) folded over wooden frames. They are quite well organized: there is a “council” which sets the rules for the “city” and deals with infractions of the rules. There are designated areas for showers, toilets, gathering water, washing clothes, and emptying garbage. This all helps with keeping things clean and disease free. This particular tent city has walls all around it and one has to show an ID to the security guard to enter. This has helped with safety in the “city.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><!--StartFragment--></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">On Mon. we started work. We were loaded into “the cage” along with our tools, and security guards, 2 of them armed, and drove to the site: a 7 acre plot which will have duplex homes for 70 families. Our first task was to move dirt from where a truck had dumped it (in a dry area) through the mud and close to the house. We learned to work as a team right away. We set up a line, some shoveled dirt into the buckets, others passed them to those in line and the person at the end emptied them. Sounds easy right? Did I mention that dirt is heavy and we had to pass through thick mud? Just to give everyone a chance at each task, we had a system to move the line and switch every 15 minutes. Rotate has whole new meaning. Thank goodness we had translators to explain to the Haitian volunteers what we were doing. My stomach muscles should be lots stronger from lifting and laughing. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQOXrBiwU9JG4OCHAL9hyWuEZB0sn0UNF7DI9TGlStDTp2MJLEblk3rpBFhV3BC7K6eaQ1MDyTd0rOF40QpVh1sXHrPW9ZrFHOoHHuZd5rV-PI7g4LuB4sIlO2uENe8WESTAB0RGMnvEY/s1600/IMGP0185.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQOXrBiwU9JG4OCHAL9hyWuEZB0sn0UNF7DI9TGlStDTp2MJLEblk3rpBFhV3BC7K6eaQ1MDyTd0rOF40QpVh1sXHrPW9ZrFHOoHHuZd5rV-PI7g4LuB4sIlO2uENe8WESTAB0RGMnvEY/s320/IMGP0185.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Moving dirt seemed to be a constant need during the week. We did use wheelbarrows when the mud level decreased so we could put down some boards to walk on. We put fill in the house to level the floor and spread gravel that had been dumped on the “road” so the truck could get closer to the house. (It got stuck during one unloading.) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><!--StartFragment--></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, some of us got to use our carpenter skills. When the supervisor found out we had a “carpenter” on the team, he was put to work making a template for the trusses. That would probably be a straight forward task in the US. In Haiti, it’s a bit more challenging. No electricity, no power tools and no wood. Through a lot of negotiating, Jonny, our coordinating contractor found some plywood and enough 2 x 4’s to make a “table” and one truss. It took all day to measure and cut the wood. We only bent a few saws. It is a great accomplishment when one actually gets through that wood. On Wed. the team put up the first truss. HURRAY!!! That evening we found there were skill saws and a generator that another volunteer team had in storage. We must have looked pathetic after working, as they were very generous and let us borrow them. Boy did that speed up the process. I think we had 8 trusses finished by Fri. (Each home needs 20 so the next team will have plenty of work to do.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I mentioned we had guards with us everywhere we went. At first this was unnerving, but as we got to know them, and realized they were there to keep an eye on us and to keep us safe, we relaxed and enjoyed getting to know them. Because Haitians are so poor and we have so much, it is easy for people to want what we have … this would include our tools, our water bottles, our cameras, our food and anything else we might bring to the work site. With our guards looking after us, we never worried. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Because the new community is a distance from “Grace Village” and no one lives there yet, we didn’t have much interaction with the future residents. Our homeowners Antonio & Cynthia and Rigaud & Jennette worked with us every day. This meant they were at “the cage” ready to go in the morning as they lived in tent city and were transported with us. Knowing they were working hard to create a new home for their families certainly gave us inspiration to work through the heat of the day.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Our team also was there one day for “The Lord’s Kitchen,” the feeding program where rice and beans are cooked outside in huge pots and over 800 children come with a container and wait patiently to be served their 2 scoops of mixture to take back to their families. For many, this is their only meal of the day. It is not easy to watch the responsibility of a toddler prodded by an older child (of maybe 6 or 8) stand in line so their family may eat.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span></span>I had an absolutely wonderful team. We came from all over the US and Canada and ranged in age from 20 to 72. We worked well together and enjoyed each other. Everyone pitched in and did what was needed. Laughter could be heard much of the time. It is amazing that one can work hard, live in conditions with minimal comfort and feel good about it. Of course, it helps put things in perspective when one looks out and sees how much better we had it than the people who live there. It made it difficult to complain about the lack of water or pressure in the shower when one only had to look out and see “tent city.” In comparison, we lived in a palace and ate like royalty. I feel so fortunate for the opportunities I have had to go to other countries and experience all I have. I am already thinking about a trip to Haiti next year to see the progress. My hope is that the people there will have some hope for the future.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">For more information about the Fuller Center check out </span><a href="http://www.fullercenter.org/global-builders/haiti"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">http://www.fullercenter.org/global-builders/haiti</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> My team is in the pictures. If you look very closely (probably using a magnifying glass) you can see me sawing a board. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<!--EndFragment--> </div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-57208219279978752802011-03-09T17:46:00.000-05:002011-03-09T17:46:32.808-05:00What am I clinging to?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3drhOqCTesAqcDAPLzBye6KdQSam6F-c4Ka8L4AC77GDI5VqhXOc4O6gxd1eDV7oGNbyukATKYPcWi8iyqDrvIIA6KJB2hTkNm__aKCg4XplMUNxP2XQK0l9bDZI4L5qsWY6fGJUXBy8/s1600/IMGP0096.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3drhOqCTesAqcDAPLzBye6KdQSam6F-c4Ka8L4AC77GDI5VqhXOc4O6gxd1eDV7oGNbyukATKYPcWi8iyqDrvIIA6KJB2hTkNm__aKCg4XplMUNxP2XQK0l9bDZI4L5qsWY6fGJUXBy8/s200/IMGP0096.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>So I'm thinking about John 15, Christ the vine & us the branches.<br />
Here's the thing about the branches attached to vines. We need support. We cling to the closest surface: brick, wood, we'll even wrap ourselves around metal when the opportunity presents itself.<br />
When a vine starts to reach in a new direction, though, the branches either have to go along, often stretching toward a new support system, or find themselves stressing out, breaking off from their source of nourishment on the traveling vine.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUto1tpMAi4snK-3MYReN-LhmhKq58_VhZ5-ygEQd3d3SJEYLAOFLwvDHGSyaE_IpFrrn2GRGKWtxbUnbOLJ6kqXKtOKKNo8SSeBnz1k_vGopLa_xjQwvUI3ylyGXqMmTkYXtv45UM6R8/s1600/IMGP0075.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUto1tpMAi4snK-3MYReN-LhmhKq58_VhZ5-ygEQd3d3SJEYLAOFLwvDHGSyaE_IpFrrn2GRGKWtxbUnbOLJ6kqXKtOKKNo8SSeBnz1k_vGopLa_xjQwvUI3ylyGXqMmTkYXtv45UM6R8/s200/IMGP0075.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>Could there be a better metaphor for churches? We get lovingly attached to the places where we've encountered Christ, places whose very walls are saturated with years of spoken word and silent prayer, hymns sung well, and, if we're honest, not so well. We love the places where we've been challenged and comforted by the Holy Spirit. That attachment can make it hard to see when the Spirit is moving in a new place, much less a new direction in the world.<br />
And our loving attachments can separate us from those Christ's own heart longs to reach. Remember what the Israelites went through in the desert? Here's a humorous walk down that memory lane with 1970s Christian pop-rocker Keith Green:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MD9W61KZYxk" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe><br />
Its amazing how tenaciously we can hang on, even when life starts moving out into the desert, especially when manna is all that's on offer. Do you remember why they wanted to leave Eygpt in the first place? Now that consumerism defines us, we should at least have a choice, shouldn't we? Word is that an awful lot of people were finding their church experiences to be more like salvery in Eygpt than freedom on the road. Its the funniest thing, how God seems to beckon from the strangest places just when we're getting comfortable. Have you ever heard of the frog whose pot of water started to get hot?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpxMKKvxLRBnKFlt95P6SaWoenzcZBHmLryprrJOZJVgmPXpiqMmVjw54DcbCunR0a6TYOaGpx6q6B9TS_GUcjI0uSxLzvBfif4zfIzHcP_YF3loZpL9eWiygGKmNWY7cI7Vc2n05rkQ0/s1600/220px-Maria_Kannon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpxMKKvxLRBnKFlt95P6SaWoenzcZBHmLryprrJOZJVgmPXpiqMmVjw54DcbCunR0a6TYOaGpx6q6B9TS_GUcjI0uSxLzvBfif4zfIzHcP_YF3loZpL9eWiygGKmNWY7cI7Vc2n05rkQ0/s320/220px-Maria_Kannon.jpg" width="160" /></a></div>In the early 1630s, Japanese Catholics were executed, renounced their faith, or were forced into secrecy by the Shabara Rebellion. When the Mejii Restoration began a couple hundered years later, strange practices began to come to light: statues of Mary and her child that looked like bodhisattvas, prayers that sounded like Buddhist chant with remnants of latin, Portuguese and Spanish. When anthropologist Christal Whelan discovered two surviving priests they weren't seaking to each other for some reason.<br />
<br />
A new generation found a new way, in the light of freedom to practice their religion. The old ways of the <i>Kakure Kirishitan </i> (hidden Christians) died off. They weren't bad ways. They weren't where the vine was going. That's an extreme example.<br />
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Phyllis Tickle, former religious book editor for Publisher's Weekly, says that about every 500 years Western Christianity has a "yard sale." We pull our traditions out of the attic, dust off some that we've forgotten, set aside some that don't seem to inspire us anymore. Would it surprise you to learn that we're well into the "uptick" for this 500 year cycle?<br />
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What we know and love about our worship isn't the same image held by many who've lef tthe church, or only seen it in movies. I once had a student who was quite certain that none of his musical interests could possible have any connection to the bible. He was astounded to learn that one of his favorites, "Let us Pray," by Lil Wayne and Juelz Santana, was based on Psalm 23. And it was a stretching experience for me to learn that those same words, "Yea though I walk through the Shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me....." were tatooed in their entirely on his chest. ( I assured him that I trusted his word and didn't need to see for myself). The music carrying the lyrics moves from the chaos of sin through the wrestling of repentance, and into the peace that abides in assurance of God's love.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs7B33p_-RZgD9qaSP6AuHL_vMpjtIJWZiMUcBCgb0yWGzU_UNRarinJMAmEuJpK6LSJNbJZsNMY9k91T76dldc66GEMw-PR_H4YHkaev4GpcpBJULiKtTEf-U7ecSlHaghDgAi7_Ji8E/s1600/tatoo+foot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs7B33p_-RZgD9qaSP6AuHL_vMpjtIJWZiMUcBCgb0yWGzU_UNRarinJMAmEuJpK6LSJNbJZsNMY9k91T76dldc66GEMw-PR_H4YHkaev4GpcpBJULiKtTEf-U7ecSlHaghDgAi7_Ji8E/s200/tatoo+foot.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
Could hip hop songs and tatoos really show us places where Christ the vine is leaning? Can spoken word express a fresh experience of the gospel. (find out by seeking out Fred Lynch's beautiful rendition of John 15 in "A Hip Hop Devotional through the Book of John." (I'm happy to loan it out locally.) Or check out the Christian punk band, The Devil Wears Prada, whose heavy metal, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px;"><i>Hey John, what’s your name again </i>video is one of the best theological interpretations of John's soteriology, means of grace by which we are saved, that I've ever encountered. These are a new support system for a new generation, pointing to why our churches have alot of dwindling congregations meeting in chilly church basements. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px;">Perhaps this Lent could be a season of stretching toward the Easter light we long for, even if it draw us to explore strange places. It may be the difference between life and a breaking point for some congregations. </span><br />
<!--StartFragment--><!--EndFragment--> </div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-71272734316610998932011-02-20T12:29:00.001-05:002011-02-20T13:37:05.060-05:00Children's message<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">In worship this morning we watched (part of this) with the children's Sunday School question in mind, "who is my neighbor?" The internet is really slow on the hill this weekend, so we weren't able to finish the video clip. So for those who saw part and those who saw none yet, here's Sermon Spice's "Set Service."<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LfeXxkbgCVE" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe><br />
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Thou shalt love the lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself.<br />
The morning message is available at <a href="http://www.injoy-karen.blogspot.com/">the pastor's blog.</a><br />
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</div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-41645328027817826912011-02-14T19:08:00.016-05:002011-02-14T19:33:54.970-05:00See What? Say Who.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thoughts on John 3: 1-21</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For 2 weeks we’ve heard two powerful healing stories. They're stories that put newly empowered people immediately on the defensive. Local authorities demand they explain themselves. What happened? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> To add insult to injury, both the once paralyzed man(from John 5) and the man born blind (from John 9) are called on the carpet because they were healed on the Sabbath, the holy day, the day of rest.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here’s what I’ve been wondering this week, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">why do we still refer to them as the “paralytic” and the “blind man”? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If I’ve been healed, I want to be “the one who can walk.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I want to be “the one who can see.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Are we so focused on dysfunction we can’t quite let it go. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Labels do seem to linger, don’t they?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Maybe that’s Nicodemus’ problem. Maybe he and his Council colleagues are so focused on avoiding dysfunction they’re blind, or at least blindfolded, unable to see health and wholeness.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Maybe they really </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">can’t</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> see what’s right in front of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Just one, Nicodemus, the teacher who’s supposed to know it all, comes knocking after nightfall. How embarrassing. Nicodemus wasn’t exactly living in the era of “lead learners,” after all. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Is he who is supposed to know enough to judge <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">really </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">creeping in after dark to the house where Jesus invited his first followers to “come and see?” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Those followers sought Jesus in the open, in front of God and everyone. But Nicodemus looks for answers inside, afterhours, when the teacher is alone.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I don’t think he’s using the “royal we,” </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Maybe </span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">all the leaders of the council really know, on some level, that Jesus is a God-sent, blessed sign, and they just can’t come to grips with what they should do about it. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKS0G5usf7Kw2oJ8gwPWfibJyfF_fqRQOo9zy1wC67nRIkaEf9d62Holre7xR9EWZ_bFPpIyRlSQQKwxPHmG-dvodJRsSM46wdPkZNnmCKR8MGyoFMXRSCy9Er_mby7n9GqChzTC5kKSg/s1600/Giovanni%2527s+Nicodemus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKS0G5usf7Kw2oJ8gwPWfibJyfF_fqRQOo9zy1wC67nRIkaEf9d62Holre7xR9EWZ_bFPpIyRlSQQKwxPHmG-dvodJRsSM46wdPkZNnmCKR8MGyoFMXRSCy9Er_mby7n9GqChzTC5kKSg/s1600/Giovanni%2527s+Nicodemus.jpg" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But I think Nicodemus is part of group of wonderers who are starting to understand their handicapping conditions. He’s the one brave enough to limp out at night.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Things are different at night. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In our overly ordered minds, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">in the simplest of nursery stories, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">day is for wake and work, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">night is for sleep and rest. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Even in the age of electricity, these categories guide our expectations, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">our body rhythms, our children’s songs and prayers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Night is time for hopes, and fear, dreams and tears.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Night is when the desperate, foolish, and cruel enter others’ homes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Night is when firemen are called out.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In her most recent book, Kate Braestrup talks about this prayer’s origin in an era when pneumonia struck at night. A child might lay down to sleep and not rise up again in the morning. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Night is when it’s quiet on the hospital ward, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">just machines ticking and whirring <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">interrupted by an occasional siren growing nearer, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a few watchful nurses guarding their patients,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Night is when the veils come off, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">when lovers whisper, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">when voices whisper instead of shout. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Night is when conversations behind closed curtains <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">plan protests and shake hands on it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Night is when candles emerge in public squares, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">one, two, twenty, hundreds, thousands, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">until they become a mass witness to <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the Spirit unwilling to tolerate totalitarian regimes. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Night is when fireworks spray human joy across the sky crying, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">yes, yes, yes!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Night is when Nicodemus asks all the right questions <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and gives all the right answers, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">but does get that he gets it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[He says], "</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it."</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jesus says], "</span><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You're absolutely right.</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom."</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jesus is not telling Nic he has to be born again <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">so he’ll be able to process it all perfectly in his mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jesus is telling him he </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">has</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> been born again; <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">he sees the signs, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">he walked to the right door. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Christians have spent decades asking the wrong question, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHMVHXTuT1CH1FAqJFsPyS21_xnmaQg3Fy7GkXsHxQm4PMd61269frkQ4TbcMJQkVTsvIEm0pVNkQgdldDLgDMLpXqIPdQWjrnFXnRDNlIBv07y2Xj2dIfMv5JGTTQRQx6t9TKKdqSPTQ/s1600/ticket+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHMVHXTuT1CH1FAqJFsPyS21_xnmaQg3Fy7GkXsHxQm4PMd61269frkQ4TbcMJQkVTsvIEm0pVNkQgdldDLgDMLpXqIPdQWjrnFXnRDNlIBv07y2Xj2dIfMv5JGTTQRQx6t9TKKdqSPTQ/s200/ticket+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Have you been born again?” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">as though it were a ticket to the big show <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">or a get out of jail free card.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jesus </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">wants to know is <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Can you see what I’m doing right before your eyes?” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Are you going to take up your bedroll and get going with me?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Because if you can see me, Jesus says, you can see God.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And if you are coming with me, you are on the path home.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jesus doesn’t ask Nicodemus what he’s looking for, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jesus doesn’t make him say what he wants. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jesus doesn’t ask Nicodemus what he’s done for God lately.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But there is an important question underlying this conversation. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It’s a question that lingers when Nicodemus goes back out into the night,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a riddle, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">how is Nicodemus like the once upon a time paralytic, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">like the once blind man?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Answer, we don’t know.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We don’t know, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">because we don’t hear <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">what he says to those waiting for him at home, at work, at school.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The once immoveable man walked out in the light of day <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and said to the leaders of the temple, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Jesus did it. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jesus made me well.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The once blind man dragged not once but twice, to tell his story, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">twice given the chance to justify himself <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">in the face of growing pressure to disown t<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">he rule breaking, trouble making Jesus, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">looks them right in the eyes and says, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“I don’t know </span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">what</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> he did to make me see. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> I do know </span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">who</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> did it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Is Sabbath for rest that atrophies and immobilizes? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Or is Sabbath remind us of the power God intends to heal, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to find feet,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> sight, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and voices? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The miracle of the once-blind man isn’t really that his eyes were healed. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> It’s that now he can see. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Oliver Sacks, the neurologist, writes about patients whose eyesight has been restored, but whose brains can’t process the information now coming to them. It just doesn’t make sense, the neural pathways are infant, unformed. They are born again. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nicodemus eyes are wide open. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Who will he say he has seen?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img src="webkit-fake-url://6180ADB1-4373-490B-8A7E-580CE702BD63/application.pdf" /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div></div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-20347585516799907242011-02-11T19:30:00.000-05:002011-02-11T19:30:50.361-05:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span><br />
<div align="left" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Brian shared this wonderful poem as the 2-6-11 Call to Worship:</div><div align="left" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><br />
</div><div align="left" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">by A. R. Ammons</div><div align="left" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><br />
</div><div align="left" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">I know if I find you I will have to leave the earth<br />
and go on out<br />
over the sea marshes and the brant in bays<br />
and over the hills of tall hickory<br />
and over the crater lakes and canyons<br />
and on up through the spheres of diminishing air<br />
past the blackset noctilucent clouds<br />
where one wants to stop and look<br />
way past all the light diffusions and bombardments<br />
up farther than the loss of sight<br />
into the unseasonal undifferentiated empty stark<br />
<br />
And I know if I find you I will have to stay with the earth<br />
inspecting with thin tools and ground eyes<br />
trusting the microvilli sporangia and simplest<br />
coelenterates<br />
and praying for a nerve cell<br />
with all the soul of my chemical reactions<br />
and going right on down where the eye sees only traces<br />
<br />
You are everywhere partial and entire<br />
You are on the inside of everything and on the outside<br />
<br />
I walk down the path down the hill where the sweetgum<br />
has begun to ooze spring sap at the cut<br />
and I see how the bark cracks and winds like no other bark<br />
chasmal to my ant-soul running up and down<br />
and if I find you I must go out deep into your<br />
far resolutions<br />
and if I find you I must stay here with the separate leaves</div><div><br />
</div><br />
</div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-63312105741365211672011-01-24T12:40:00.002-05:002011-01-24T21:36:27.769-05:00Do You See What I See?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">This week's readings in John chapter 2 bring us into two uncomfortable conversations. One begins with Jesus talking back to his mother (John 2: 1-17).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But this domestic scene is just an appetizer. The real action begins when Jesus’ get to his God-Father’s house, the temple. (John 2: 18-22)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">These two stories cast Jesus in a different light than we are used to seeing him.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">We want Jesus to be the good and readily obedient son. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">We want Jesus to be the one who never gets angry. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">We want the powers that be to “get it.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">During the recent holidays, Andy William’s version of the Christmas classic lodged in my inner ear:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">From the night wind to the little lamb, do you see what I see?</div><div class="MsoNormal">From the little lamb to the shepherd boy, do you hear what I hear?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">From the shepherd boy to the mighty king, Do you know what I know?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman Italic';">Said the king to the people everywhere<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman Italic';">Listen to what I say<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman Italic';">Pray for peace people everywhere<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman Italic';">Listen to what I say<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman Italic';">A child, a child, sleeping in the night<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman Italic';">He will bring us goodness and light<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman Italic';">He will bring us goodness and light</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman Italic';">Do you hear what I hear?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman Italic';"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m propbably not the only one who finds “Little Drummer Boy” more pleasant to sing than the song another king, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, wove into his “I have a Dream Speech.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"> <i>Mine Eyes have see the glory of the coming of the Lord, <o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i> He has trampled out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored…<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">King declaimed peace that day on the Lincoln Memorial Steps, </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">My people, my people, listen! The battle is in our hands.... So as we go away this afternoon, let us go away more than ever before committed to the struggle and committed to nonviolence. I must admit to you there are still some difficulties ahead. We are still in for a season of suffering.... I must admit to you there are still jail cells waiting for us, dark and difficult moments. We will go on with the faith that nonviolence and its power transformed dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. We will be able to change all of these conditions. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man but to win his friendship and understanding. We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.... I know you are asking today, "How long will it take?" I come to say to you this afternoon however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth pressed to earth will rise again. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> How long? </span></i><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Not long, because no lie can live forever. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">How long? Not long, because you still reap what you sow. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">How long? Not long. because the arm of the moral universe is long and it bends toward justice. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">How long? Not long,</span></i><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">'cause mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. </i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. </i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>His truth is marching on. </i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i></i></span><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">He has sounded forth the trumpets that shall never call retreat. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">He is lifting up the hearts of man before His judgment seat. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him. Be jubilant, my feet. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Our God is marching on.<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5681449799139654869#_edn1" name="_ednref" title="">[i]</a></span></span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5681449799139654869#_edn1" name="_ednref" title=""></a></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Hearing the Battle Hymn of the Republic in the context of this speech that changed the world, that changed my world, that changed your world, brings out a whole new meaning in the words. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The wrath is not anger for anger’s sake or for entertainment’s sake, or to make a buck or to fill in some emotional vacuum. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">It's only when I hear these words in the voice of those who fight for justice, that I can hear these fighting words as holy words. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">It's only as we hear Jesus words in the voice of those who fight for justice, that we can hear fighting words as holy words.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">When Jesus’ anger pours out in the temple the glory of God is being revealed as the glory of justice. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">When John's Gospel was being put on written record, it was seventy some years after Jesus’ crucifixion and death, after the splendid failure of his project in their grandparents’ time, It's some seventy years after Jesus’ resurrection that reframed the project entirely, Judaism was being forced to recreate itself. The Romans had driven them out of the temple and taken the place down behind them.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">If God <u>was</u> in the temple, <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">where is God <u>now</u>?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Where do we worship now? <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><u>How</u> do we worship now?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Jewish Communities reshaped their sacred centers. Some regrouped in the synagogues planted in the last crisis, the Diaspora. They met in homes and places of business and simple meeting halls. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Some regrouped around the one who revealed the Glory of God to them. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">John’s community, the one forming this gospel wrestles with a fundamental question.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Is Jesus Human, or is Jesus God?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">If Jesus is human, life is so much easier. They don’t have to endure abuse and charges of blasphemy from their neighbors and family or torture from representatives of the Roman Empire. They can just say, he’s a great teacher and let it go at that. Sigh of relief.But then, what did it mean when Jesus said, “the temple will be rebuilt.” Why is that they saw their God, saw their lives so differently when Jesus showed up?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So, is Jesus human or is Jesus God.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The answer was then and is now, “Yes.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Jesus is the glory of God.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Jesus is a human being having a fully human experience.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Yes.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So how do we live with that yes?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">How do we live with a man who got up and walked out of his own tomb, who keeps asking us to see the glory of god revealed in what he says and does? How do we do that well?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">What is success? That’s a sacred question.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Is success taking on responsibility for the life of the party (and overstepping your role as guest to help your host when he runs out of libations)?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Is success doing what your mother tells you?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Is success the number of projects we manage to finish, the sheer momentum of tasks accomplished?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Is success numerical? Is more merrier, bigger better?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For Jesus, it seems, success is when the people around him sees what he sees: his Creator, infusing all of creation with compassion and beauty, and a hunger for justice, a thirst for mercy. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The Prophet Isaiah says<b><u> </u></b>(9:1-4)</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <i>But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. ….The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, …<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Do you hear what I hear?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Do you see what I see?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Asks Jesus.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;"><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5681449799139654869#_ednref" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[i]</span></a> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. <i>I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World (Speech given at the end of the march from Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 25 1965)<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Do you hear what I hear?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">(Hear what I hear, hear what I hear?)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Said the night wind to the little lamb<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Do you see what I see? (do you see what I see?)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Way up in the sky, little lamb<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Do you see what I see? (do you see what I see?)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A star, a star, dancing in the night<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">With a tail as big as a kite<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">With a tail as big as a kite<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Do you hear what I hear? (Do you hear what I hear?)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Do you hear what I hear? (Do you hear what I hear?)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A song, a song high above the tree<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">With a voice as big as the the sea<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">With a voice as big as the the sea<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Do you know what I know? (what I know, what I know?)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In your palace warm, mighty king<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Do you know what I know? (what I know, what I know?)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A Child, a Child shivers in the cold<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Let us bring him silver and gold<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Let us bring him silver and gold<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Said the king to the people everywhere<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Listen to what I say! (what I say, what I say)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Pray for peace, people, everywhere<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Listen to what I say! (what I say, what I say)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The Child, the Child sleeping in the night<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">He will bring us goodness and light<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">He will bring us goodness and light .<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><br />
</div></div></div></div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-23875489052060087992011-01-24T12:39:00.000-05:002011-01-24T12:39:32.382-05:00collecting comments on John<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVlcB2LhCM3fUVslSkzkpxydQInGl4H-F7hlZeuhIvwqj5XWOG1vSpiqXmG4weyLjd3_fbMoisZe7HsFSSlucQMQFGO1o_3NT8vFlvbKVeLvp29iqhyLm6hEyxM0jwSS3xM3y7N9-zOak/s1600/john-icon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVlcB2LhCM3fUVslSkzkpxydQInGl4H-F7hlZeuhIvwqj5XWOG1vSpiqXmG4weyLjd3_fbMoisZe7HsFSSlucQMQFGO1o_3NT8vFlvbKVeLvp29iqhyLm6hEyxM0jwSS3xM3y7N9-zOak/s320/john-icon.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>Your Pastor here, scratching her pea brain to re-collect the great comments made in worship on January 16.<br />
They came in three categories. Help out by filling in what I"ve missed or adding more. (Use the comment box below!)<br />
<br />
<u>First impressions of John</u>:<br />
<br />
<u>Memorable characters in John:</u><br />
<br />
<u>Questions provoked by the Gospel According to John:</u></div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-87084699075928197782011-01-10T14:44:00.000-05:002011-01-10T14:44:37.081-05:00Reading with JohnThis year's all church read is the Gospel according to John, the fourth of the New Testament Gospels.<br />
Since this book is structured with conversations, January and February worship services will explore the conversations we find most compelling.<br />
<br />
So, on January 2 I asked everyone to go home, read the book, and let me know which conversations they find particularly interesting, puzzling, or otherwise worth spending time with, promising to collect input on January 9. Imagine my surprise when tons of folks (well, ok, LOTS) came prepared. Wonderful conversations ensued about passages, versions of the bible-some easier to read than others.<br />
<br />
Since conversation is the theme, I'm hoping that this blog will be a platform for sharing those enthusiams and questions with each other.<br />
<br />
Use the comment space below to post the passages you'd most like to explore in the Gospel according to John. This is real need to know....so I can plan worship. We'll also stir up some viritual conversations and actual ones in small group and stone soup lunch settings.<br />
<br />
So far we have one request for John 6 (the bread passages) and two for John 17. What will you add to the list? (A word of why would also be helpful!)Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-55387744418569676822011-01-05T10:56:00.000-05:002011-01-05T10:56:11.501-05:00Twelfth Day of Christmas PresentHave the twelve days of Christmas helped you be more present to God, more aware of God's presence?<br />
The story's told of a woman whose friend, wanting to honor what she's learned from her, said, "when you are gone, people will remember the way God was present in your life." The woman smiled and said, "I hope that people will celebrate whatever way I've able to be present in God's life!"<br />
<br />
Here's a 12th day gift, with an invitaiton to be present to God in the reading of it.<br />
Tomorrow we'll turn to thoughts about conversation in the Gospel According to John.<br />
<br />
<b><i>I gave this day to God</i></b><br />
Mary Oliver, from "Accompanied by Angels: Poems of the Incarnation<br />
<br />
<i>I gave this day to God when I got up, and look,</i><br />
<i>look what it birthed! There, up the hill, stood</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i>the apple tree, bronze leaves, its fallen apples</i><br />
<i>spilling richly down the slope, the way God spilled</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i>his seed into Mary, into us. In her the holy promise </i><br />
<i>came to rest in generous soil after a long </i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i>fall. How often it ends in gravel, or dry dust.</i><br />
<i>Blackberry patches thorny with distraction. Oh</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i>I pray my soul will welcome always that small</i><br />
<i>seed. That I will hail it when it enters me.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i>I don't mind being grit, soil, dirt, mud-brown,</i><br />
<i>laced with the rot of old leaves, if only the seed</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i>can find me, find a home, and bear a fruit</i><br />
<i>sweet, flushed, full-fleshed--a glory apple.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxfNdKjc_PPrRliM3d_PWxk4wOl1JSJCxBXbj_cCpaD_5xZvCNWA8L-kjJ_YknH3oZ5Ct8qEEDEABvPbnJmdJaijC-hu_DZzZNxGWUtTNat7dJmpsPaaHs2FEHZ_Z9i8AxR4lVtvGx6uM/s1600/apples.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxfNdKjc_PPrRliM3d_PWxk4wOl1JSJCxBXbj_cCpaD_5xZvCNWA8L-kjJ_YknH3oZ5Ct8qEEDEABvPbnJmdJaijC-hu_DZzZNxGWUtTNat7dJmpsPaaHs2FEHZ_Z9i8AxR4lVtvGx6uM/s400/apples.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><i><br />
</i>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-13637617996662258782011-01-04T19:33:00.000-05:002011-01-04T19:33:20.927-05:00Eleventh Day of Christmas Present<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">10+1 + 11 today.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmsF8tTJEjiiixwDgp7t8a1Fdg9lkGtYG13VcudogOVb8me2avDgwOmsgsWiW03KnLcDXL-AAKg8r5mJFiN1xz2V2IJ6OJ1febAYBEXYvtec1faZ4E_OMtBWrO9zGAs2V_SDusP3bUjAg/s1600/Andy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmsF8tTJEjiiixwDgp7t8a1Fdg9lkGtYG13VcudogOVb8me2avDgwOmsgsWiW03KnLcDXL-AAKg8r5mJFiN1xz2V2IJ6OJ1febAYBEXYvtec1faZ4E_OMtBWrO9zGAs2V_SDusP3bUjAg/s200/Andy.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Take a look at </span><a href="http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2011/01/ten_most_significant_cultural_trends_of_the_last_decade.html?referrer=emaillink"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Andy Crouch's ten trends of the decade</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> and see if you agree these are the most important factors shaping the context of faith communities. Andy was the keynote speaker at the Glen Workshop I attended in 2009 and an articulate and insightful commentator on the interaction between faith and culture. I've summed his points up as a more and less list:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">more connectivity with real people….less virtual reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">more becoming rooted where we are….less trying to get somewhere else.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">more urban renewal.…less suburban sprawl<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">more ethnic diversification…less majority concentration.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">more polarization….less common political meeting ground<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">more self shots…..less</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> unselfconsciousness.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">more porn and idealized body images…..less certainty about how to reduce it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">more informality….less traditional institutional expectations</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">more liquidity….less real assets </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> more complexity….less easy answers</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I'd add this:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">more local and global nonprofit activity....less waiting for governments to fix things.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">What do you think??? Post your comment and spark conversation!</span>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-64019048273874800122011-01-03T09:47:00.002-05:002011-01-03T09:49:19.187-05:00Day Ten Christmas Present<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRxuvtj7VBbzXZ-sDzyk8R5bV7VdHajCc4Qe23080kq0jxIeeGCGTHyba7FZ5cCuN1x4KL1STdcwVRjk1OmPik9FD-vdTEUAnqzwKtNMe-ey45KY0FqrQzk4yHs4nnmxtVdfWNnSn_sZk/s1600/ten+lords.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRxuvtj7VBbzXZ-sDzyk8R5bV7VdHajCc4Qe23080kq0jxIeeGCGTHyba7FZ5cCuN1x4KL1STdcwVRjk1OmPik9FD-vdTEUAnqzwKtNMe-ey45KY0FqrQzk4yHs4nnmxtVdfWNnSn_sZk/s200/ten+lords.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Just imagine those ten lords a leaping non-stop for 231 years.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That's when the "Twelve Days of Christmas" was published as a poem in an English children's book, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mirth Without Mischief. </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Either before, or shortly after it was published, it became a memory game. The first player recited verse one and each following player repeated what was said before, then added the next verse. If anyone made a mistake, they had to give someone else a gift of food or a kiss.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We are celebrating Christmas present. Its full of memories of the past and hopes for the future. But our celebration is now, in the present tense. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We are moving, now as then, toward Epiphany, a celebration of the star's illumination, revealing God to those who came searching.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The gifts of the past hold moments when we rested with God. At the manger, on retreat, in family celebrations and quiet times.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">They guide us toward a present that lives as long as we continue searching for the living God. Have you ever told someone to wait right there, thinking you'd know where to find them when you came back? Ten Lords a Leaping in place for 231 years.....a peaceful baby still lying in the manger over 2,000 years later, same people, same place, I don't think so. We seek and serve a living God, one who moves and calls, nudges and reveals. Not then, not later, but now.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">..</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">...if you embrace what is to come from God, </span></i><br />
<div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">if you live for Christ's coming in practical life, </span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">you will learn that divine things can be experienced here and now, </span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">things quite different from what our human brains can ever imagine.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Action in Waiting</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In Joy, Pastor Karen</span></div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5681449799139654869.post-65945475185927314922011-01-02T16:09:00.001-05:002011-01-02T16:10:57.573-05:00Catching up: Presents 7, 8 and 9!!<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">7th Day of Christmas Present:</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In the 1990's, a legend surfaced about the meaning of the 12 days of Christmas.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Although its been discredited as the origin of the song itself, the legend is a great example of how pop </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">culture celebrations (like Christmas trees) can be re-imagined to teach and enliven the faith.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, times; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px;"></span></span></b></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi05aUBzcMUMiikp2YxS50e-CmtYbhYwyIYmkHxIY3G9IwbFsgvERBfnT7e2V4ODrBA1rCLvh8iyX8nD2vYh0vK5ZZNL4X2DEAQgMhi4mfbFzc9bHKBYOiIosf4Oad9D5-gsIo1Xl61Jpg/s1600/12+days.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi05aUBzcMUMiikp2YxS50e-CmtYbhYwyIYmkHxIY3G9IwbFsgvERBfnT7e2V4ODrBA1rCLvh8iyX8nD2vYh0vK5ZZNL4X2DEAQgMhi4mfbFzc9bHKBYOiIosf4Oad9D5-gsIo1Xl61Jpg/s200/12+days.bmp" width="200" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">1. The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus.<br />
2. The two turtledoves are the Old and New Testaments.<br />
3. Three French hens stand for faith, hope and love.<br />
4. The four calling birds are the four Gospels.<br />
5. The five gold rings recall the Hebrew Torah (Law), or the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament.<br />
6. The six geese a-laying stand for the six days of creation.<br />
7. The seven swans a-swimming represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.<br />
8. The eight maids a-milking are the eight Beatitudes.<br />
9. Nine ladies dancing are the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.<br />
10. The ten lords a-leaping are the Ten Commandments.<br />
11. Eleven pipers piping represent the eleven faithful Apostles.<br />
12. Twelve drummers drumming symbolize the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostles Creed.</span></span><br />
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</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b>8th Day of Christmas Present:</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b> </b>Today was "put-away" day at the Parsonage. (I used to call it boxing day, until I learned that boxing day has nothing to do with packing up Christmas. Click here to visit a good description of <a href="http://holidays.kaboose.com/xmas-around-boxingday.html">Boxing Day</a>'s origins.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> We had a lot of help with our version of boxing; Sara still home from college, our German friend, Alice and helper #3, J.C. (Jeanne Claude) scurrying up and down and all around.Here's an 8th day bit of fun from the parsonage cat</span>:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimZ0KLBHaZNgDaHvThLtFHQiYXyOU1CMQnVb9tn-rv_2W2dH6jWs1aHphz9V7L6GK9eITqM6ivlZl6X19PQMeM7RI-HARy80bmLmX1lleGLivM55IsL-7U6PEsegMgYA7LNZxy91ReZlk/s1600/IMGP6950.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimZ0KLBHaZNgDaHvThLtFHQiYXyOU1CMQnVb9tn-rv_2W2dH6jWs1aHphz9V7L6GK9eITqM6ivlZl6X19PQMeM7RI-HARy80bmLmX1lleGLivM55IsL-7U6PEsegMgYA7LNZxy91ReZlk/s320/IMGP6950.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK3RPZKgQY-dtk9Ac9jVehm2x-MWzQ09QjeYCGyiycBtAoyqC_cNjywvGYkN5OXWicXw31xv7OepNe5HIqZnd7dsAD8TfkTFmpq4PQTuiN_Lx4sOoRYrWgai31_GyMMa9pFRUa0yppuQA/s1600/IMGP6952.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK3RPZKgQY-dtk9Ac9jVehm2x-MWzQ09QjeYCGyiycBtAoyqC_cNjywvGYkN5OXWicXw31xv7OepNe5HIqZnd7dsAD8TfkTFmpq4PQTuiN_Lx4sOoRYrWgai31_GyMMa9pFRUa0yppuQA/s320/IMGP6952.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6NuOKVgJsyJ86syscFIMUkvyzFfbpOMQXyq-lQWaG9NXu7yEn5OGTGZKfa8U41be8bmpn5FNEpjuS81fiJR5aUlyZBvMSIEj1q9nIkFSkh5PzluxKA3WP-_8x_G_zFGHvwbKOIeZ92hw/s1600/IMGP6954.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6NuOKVgJsyJ86syscFIMUkvyzFfbpOMQXyq-lQWaG9NXu7yEn5OGTGZKfa8U41be8bmpn5FNEpjuS81fiJR5aUlyZBvMSIEj1q9nIkFSkh5PzluxKA3WP-_8x_G_zFGHvwbKOIeZ92hw/s320/IMGP6954.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLPVvqrEi9H5a6p-Pg6DWps4Z-ibl17-X50E9HNkMsqnsJFc6gBT9kxGNlGeb3QfpuUs0Sby0BRJ-q0ZQBFFW_QFDpZW41nstLfZkcBq0uOHgV092Fa3GgHrdWJdEqmJFkroVmihmTOQo/s1600/IMGP6955.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLPVvqrEi9H5a6p-Pg6DWps4Z-ibl17-X50E9HNkMsqnsJFc6gBT9kxGNlGeb3QfpuUs0Sby0BRJ-q0ZQBFFW_QFDpZW41nstLfZkcBq0uOHgV092Fa3GgHrdWJdEqmJFkroVmihmTOQo/s320/IMGP6955.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">9th Day of Christmas Present: A Service for the Blessing of A Home</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Adapted from the United Methodist Book of Worship</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Jesus said, “Behold, I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in</span></i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">” (Revelation 3:20).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">GREETING</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Friends, we gather here to seek God’s blessing upon this dwelling place, which by the favor of God and human labor has been made ready This home is not only a dwelling but a symbol to us of God’s loving care, and a symbol of our life together as God’s family. So let us bring our praise and thanksgiving for God’s goodness and mercy, and let us offer ourselves as God’s servants and as loving brothers and sisters in God’s family</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">OPENING PRAYER</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Almighty and everlasting God, grant the grace of your presence to this home, inhabit and defend this household. Teach them to love, as you have loved us, and help us all to live in the peace of Jesus Christ our Lord. Let your love rest upon this place so that all who enter may know how your love through the hospitality that it offers. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">AMEN</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">SCRIPTURE: Joshua 24: 14-15</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">SYMBOLIC ACTS</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">+ <i>Lighting a candle</i></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“May the light of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, shine within your hearts”</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">+ <i>Opening a Bible</i></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“May the Word of the Lord grow within your hearts and minds, guiding your journey.”</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">+ <i>Lifting up of the Cross</i></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“May the sacrificial love of Christ’s death and resurrection point you toward</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">the promise of eternal life.”</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 2.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -2.0in;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">BLESSING <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all present may extend their hands in blessing.</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we bless the family and friends of this dwelling place, committing to God’s love and care all who dwell within these walls.</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">BENEDICTION</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make his face to shine upon you; may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace, now and forever more. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">AMEN</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>Karen L Munsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10488270352697943490noreply@blogger.com0