Category: Speaking to the Soul

“Most of the prophets were rewarded with death. Nobody likes to be told things they don’t want to hear, especially kings. But prophets are called by God, and serve God as faithful servants, and do not count the cost. So their reward comes from a place where no perishable thing exists, but in eternity. Still, as suggested elsewhere, no servant is above his master. Jesus is spat on, pelted with rocks, insulted, killed. Expect the same. And since all actions by any disciple reflect the actions, in honor or shame, of the entire family, whomever does even a little thing, offering water to the vulnerable, is doing it in the name of the Jesus family. Water. The water of life. The water with which you will never again thirst. The water of baptism. And from there Jesus and his own fanned out to preach the Gospel. We are also charged to do the same.”

“There is time to learn God’s hopes and dreams and to be the hands and hearts that carry them out.  There is time to nurture tender seeds, not knowing what they will become but loving them for their strange, brightly colored stems and their ability to carry your heart into wonder.  There is time to make a greenhouse for God’s new life.”

“It always happens to me. I start slowly, but as the end of the training gets closer, I try to absorb more and more like a dry sponge while striving to be a cat herder for my own thoughts and questions. More and more, all of us realized that what we had was a ministry that didn’t require three years of seminary and an ordination to do.  I, like the others in the training group, feel we have been called by God to do this ministry of helping others learn what they believe, where that belief came from, and how what they learn can strengthen their faith and commitment.”

“Perhaps it is God’s ultimate mercy that we do not know the days God has formed for us.”

“Walking out into the fields, we knelt down in the loamy soil and knew we were literally reaping the benefits of someone else’s sowing, weeding, watering, and tending throughout the previous months—and the flavor that burst from these fruits and vegetables when we would eat them was like biting into the accumulated sunshine of spring and summer. It starts with fertile soil, though.”

“We’ve known death, Paul and I, and it struck us both afresh: here was Jesus, knowing what would happen the next day, spending the last night he will have on this earth with the rag-tag followers who have collected around him, loved him and been guided by him. They are still pretty oblivious, but he knows he has one final opportunity to teach them, leave them with something unforgettable. After all the long months, the healing, preaching, teaching and revelations are ending for him – think of his sense of urgency! He’s leaving his ministry to them to sustain the next day. There will be no do-overs. What is the most important thing he must convey, if his work is to bear fruit?”

“A new month begins full of hope and promise, fireflies and campfires, sunsets and sprinklers.”

“Right now, in the United States we are wrestling with systemic inequality, focused on systemic racism of the Black people who were enslaved in the U.S., and whose descendants can’t hide or pass, as others have (Jews, Irish, Italian), because of their skin color. We are marching, writing, gathering in study groups, reading, and looking inward in new ways. We are hearing angry voices. Cries to deconstruct the historical artifacts which extolled those who perpetrated this enslavement. Those whose ancestors lost the Civil War are angry. And Black people, whose ancestors were survivors of that war, and who are still being subjugated by law and practice, are angry. And here we are.”

“I don’t remember another major life-shift after that until the Covid 19 epidemic came along and changed all of our lives so radically.  I still can’t believe we went from worshiping together in relative safety (though we were worried about the common cup and sanitizing our hands) to worshiping remotely via Zoom in about 48 hours.  But we did.”

“Jesus did not preach a gospel of prosperity but of giving away, sharing with one another so that no one would suffer from needing help. God gave us the independence to respond to those teachings positively or negatively. Those who followed them found that “perfect freedom” that comes from God.”