Author: Dana Kramer-Rolls

“Paul goes back and forth between teaching them to be courageous sons and daughters of Christ and to be polite, keeping a low profile, and not offending.”

“Sundays are feeling strange. In my diocese, no Chalice. And definitely no touching. The first week of the Plague at the Peace we wandered around like BBs in a boxcar, bowing, smiling sheepishly, uncomfortable.”

We are talking about loving one another as all children of the same God in all matters. About respect and honesty. “About how our yes, yes, or no, no is our word before God. About how we accept that we may differ in our social background, but we are one Body before our God. And we don’t have to like everything about each other. But we must honor and respect our neighbors, all of them.”

“But ultimately it is God to whom we owe that bond. To be blunt, God made us, and God owns us. It is pure grace that we have the choice of making mistakes and learning and turning again toward our God.”

“We all fall. We all deny the Christ by word or deed or sheer carelessness. We are so human. We become afraid. But if we were not given the example of Peter, how would we learn? It was necessary for Peter to be afraid, to be human, to be flawed. And to ultimately receive Jesus’ forgiveness and mission to continue his teachings, to feed Jesus’ sheep, and build a Church, the Body of Christ.”

“And I rest in faith of God’s grace and abundant love. But I am fragile and vulnerable. And I still wrestle with a wasted life. And all the things the psalmist said. The ups and downs of our life with God, our life in Christ. And I am seeking again in the Psalms the range of life’s emotions: fears, joys, pains, sins, angers, return to God. All of these are in the Psalms.”

“Jesus goes from the outside, the hidden place, to the inside, now the place of danger. In secret. And he can hear the muttering about him, pro and con, but all overshadowed by fear of the authorities.”

“In the Eucharist we are fed, and in faith we know we are all embraced in Jesus’ arms, adopted by his Father and cherished. It is done. It is over. We are saved. And the deeper we know this the greater our hearts turn to God, and the greater our hearts turn towards the world.”

“Even stepping back from the passionate relationship most of us have with him, Jesus is a man being falsely accused. That is what bearing false witness is all about. Not just lying about someone, but invoking a preconceived judgement based on convention or personal likes and dislikes.”

“But a good life takes practice and attention. And the answers to the questions of discernment – marriage, divorce, vocation – all must come in dialogue with the Spirit. And with abiding fidelity to and love for Jesus and learning from the few words we have of his in four slim Gospels plus Acts and a few letters.”