Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Scriptures and Reflection Questions for June 3rd, 2012

Trinity Sunday, Year B
June 3, 2012


Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

How to use this page:
Print this and read a different passage each day and think about it. Some questions are offered to help stimulate your reflection. You'll find your experience of worship on Sunday will be intensified.

For a method to read and pray with the scriptures you might try to use the ancient practice of Lectio Divina (Divine Reading). We've written some instructions on how to use Lectio with the Sunday Scriptures at the following link: Using Lectio Divina to pray the lections –
http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id272.html


The Episcopal Church Center also publishes a weekly Bible Study based on the Sunday lectionary. A current seminarian prepares the study. http://www.episcopalchurch.org/107902_116094_ENG_HTM.htm.

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The Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and  worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.




Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 29
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-17

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Isaiah 6:1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and
lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above
him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered
their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory."

The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house
filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean
lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King,
the LORD of hosts!"

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from
the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now
that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted
out." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will
go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"

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When have you had an experience of the Holy?

If you had such a profound sense of anointing as Isaiah has experienced, how might
you answer the question, "Whom shall I send...?"


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Psalm 29 Afferte Domino

Ascribe to God, you heavenly beings, *
ascribe to God glory and strength.

Ascribe due honor to God's holy Name; *
worship the Most High in the beauty of holiness.

The voice of God is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; *
God is upon the mighty waters.

The voice of God is a powerful voice; *
the voice of God is a voice of splendor.

The voice of God breaks the cedar trees; *
God breaks the cedars of Lebanon;

God makes Lebanon skip like a calf *
and Mount Hermon like a young wild ox.

The voice of God splits the flames of fire; the voice of God shakes the wilderness;*
God shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of God makes the oak trees writhe *
and strips the forests bare.

And in the temple of the Holy One, *
all are crying, "Glory!"

God sits enthroned above the flood, *
enthroned for evermore.

God shall give strength to the people; *
God shall give the people the blessing of peace.

St. Helena's Psalter

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In what setting in nature are you most aware of God's wonder?


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Romans 8:12-17
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according
to the flesh -- for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by
the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are
led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of
slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When
we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit
that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ -- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified
with him.

_______________

What does it mean to you to be a child of God?

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John 3:1-17

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by
night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from
God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."
Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without
being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having
grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus
answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being
born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of
the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born
from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but
you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who
is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus
answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these
things?

"Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen;
yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and
you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No
one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of
Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son
of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order
that the world might be saved through him."

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John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world...) is one of the most familiar and quoted
passages of scripture. How does reading that verse in its context within this wholepassage shed light on that verse's meaning for you?


Why do you think this passage was chosen as the gospel reading for Trinity Sunday?

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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Transformation by Effort and Grace


Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
May 27, 2012; Pentecost Sunday, Year B
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

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Last weekend I got to meet someone I’ve known from afar.  Years ago I read a lovely book about the Benedictine Rule written by Brian Taylor, an Episcopal priest from Albuquerque.  And since that time, he’s been on my radar as someone I pay attention to.  Well, I met Brian at a meeting last week, and we visited a bit.  A delightful conversation.  I think we’re going to be working together some on some shared interests at the General Convention in July.

For this Pentecost sermon, I want to share a notion of Brian’s with you.  It has to do with transformation. 

Pentecost is the feast of the transformation of the church by God’s Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is always working to transform us.  The Spirit’s goal is that in our lives we will become expressions of the kind of life we see in Christ.  What do we see when we look at Jesus?  We see – and these are Brian’s words – “generosity, humility, prophetic fire, forgiveness, trust in God, purity in heart, and unconditional love.” [i]  That’s a pretty good list of virtues to strive for.  But that’s going to take some change, isn’t it?  I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a long way to go to be like that. 

God’s Spirit would like to change us, transform us so that we are people of generosity, humility, prophetic fire, forgiveness, trust in God, purity in heart, and unconditional love.  How does that happen?  Brian says we are transformed in three ways – the change that happens to us, the change that we create, and, well, a third way.

First:  The change that happens to us.  Sometimes we just get hit over the head and we are changed.  It happened to our namesake, St. Paul.  He was working so hard, trying to measure up, trying to be perfect, to control his own life and to straighten up those others who were out of control, and he was simply miserable.  Performance anxiety.  Am I okay?  Am I measuring up?  And he got struck blind with the realization that God loves him and accepts him without strings, without his measuring up.  Justification by grace is what he called it.  Peace is what it gave him.  He was accepted.  He was safe.  He could relax.  And from that place of deep acceptance, he could be who he was.  POW!  It hit him like a ton of bricks, and he was changed.

This kind of changes either happens or it doesn’t.  You can’t really manufacture it.  But we try.  And when a breakthrough doesn’t come, we can get pretty disappointed, in ourselves and in God. 

But there is a second kind of change, a change that we create.  It’s “the kind of transformation that is planned and executed through our own efforts.”  In church, we call it practice.  We adopt a rule of life to pray, to study, to live more gently.  There are other kinds of programs “to lose weight, get in shape, improve our effectiveness at work, build intimacy in our marriage, and yes, grow spiritually.  We set overall goals, identify measurable objectives, and practice the seven steps promoted by the author or workshop leader.” [ii] 

There are a number of ways I’ve become a better person through these disciplines and efforts.  But, Brian Taylor says, “the planning/execution model doesn’t always work.”  It can become oppressive trying to measure up, like Paul experienced in his early life.  It’s even worse if we succeed, and become proud and smug because we are not like “those others.”  Sometimes we don’t know what change we need to work on, because we can’t see what’s best for ourselves.  Sometimes we know, and we just get stuck.

But there is a third way.  “When God doesn’t seem inclined to slap us upside the head with instantaneous transformation and when we can’t transform ourselves through our own efforts alone, there is …a mysterious interplay of human effort and divine grace.” [iii]

Brian grew up in California’s Bay Area.  Every kid growing up in the Bay Area had to at least try to surf on occasion.  Brian writes, “I remember waiting peacefully, bobbing up and down in the water, watching the horizon as swells came in groups, wondering if this set was going to be The One.  I remember turning towards shore, paddling hard…, only to fall back when I couldn’t catch the momentum of the wave.  I remember especially the glorious sensation when my vigorous strokes were magically met by the powerful surge beneath, lifting me up and forward.  It was an amazing physical sensation, when, after having waited, discerned, tried, and failed, suddenly my strength and the ocean’s strength came together in a glorious alchemy.” [iv]

He continues:  “So it is with spiritual transformation.  We put in our time in prayer, we go to therapy, read books, talk to friends, offer ourselves in worship, and practice our rule of life.  We paddle along by our own strength, trying to propel ourselves forward, hoping to catch a wave of freedom, compassion, simplicity, or intimacy with the divine.”

There is our own working out of our salvation as St. Paul encourages, and there is also the waiting on grace.  “Interspersed with our efforts to change is a contemplative dimension, a kind of surrender, a dying to self.  This is what Gerald May used to call ‘creating a little contemplative space’ around things, a little breathing room for the Spirit when things are dense.  In this contemplative space, we let go of our control, trusting that God is working beneath our understanding and our striving.  We float, remaining awake, receptive, watchful.”

“Eventually the waters beneath us will surge,” Brian says.  Something comes together.  We understand.  Our frustrating trying meets “an energy beyond ourselves, and we are taken forward.”  Effort and grace overlap simultaneously.  Change happens.

Here’s how Brian summarizes it:  “Transformation does not usually happen to us by magic or simply because we will it into being.  It happens because we try, we fail, we surrender, we wait, we try again, we get help, we let go, we beat our heads against the wall, we wait some more . . . and all the while, we do our best to trust that the Spirit is actually working harder than we are, beneath the surface of consciousness.  Occasionally we catch glimpses of this graceful work, until finally, when the timing is right, it comes out into the open, all our efforts are matched by the more powerful surge of grace, and we are carried forward.”

So trust.  Be of good heart.  Keep trying, striving.  Practice.  Do not be afraid.  Believe that if you do your part, the Spirit will go to work as well.  We float upon a divine ocean of life.  Watch for the wave, ready to paddle hard to catch it, and to be carried beyond what you could ever become yourself.  Who knows, you may even discover in yourself things like “generosity, humility, prophetic fire, forgiveness, trust in God, purity in heart, and unconditional love.”  You may find God’s Holy Spirit transforming you into Christ. [v]


[i] Brian C. Taylor, from his essay The Alchemy of Effort and Grace, in the CREDO book All Shall Be Well, William S. Craddock, Jr., editor, Morehouse Publishing, New York, 2009, p. 172.
[ii] Ibid, p. 173
[iii] Ibid, p. 174
[iv] Ibid, p. 175
[v] In a week when I am especially weary, I am thankful for Brian’s fine essay, giving me a wave to ride on to a sermon that I wasn’t able to create for myself.