Ps 85        Luke 9:28-36

“I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence. I can understand a wrathful God who'd just as soon dangle us all from a hook. And I can understand a tender, unprejudiced Jesus. But I could never quite feature the two of them living in the same house. You wind up walking on eggshells, never knowing which... is at home at the moment.”

            Barbara Kingsolver, THE POISONWOOD BIBLE

-Genie Joslin

Ps 8       Matt 28:16-20

Psalms 8

"O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

Psalms 8 is believed to have been written as a hymn to celebrate God's creation of the universe, which not only  includes the handiwork we see in nature, but also the beauty in humankind.

"When I look at your heavens..." 

When I read the Psalm, I think of the times I have marveled at the night sky, the stars, the moon, or the sun rising and setting. Or the vastness of an ocean, the majesty of a mountain.   Or, the beauty and intricacy of a flower, evolving from a small seed.  And, the short, but beautiful, life cycle of the butterfly.   Or, the grace of a bird flying overhead.   Nature constantly amazes me and erases any doubts I may have of the existence of a Greater Being.

"...you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor."

The Psalm is not just about the glory of  nature, but the beauty of humankind.  The complexities of our bodies from birth and throughout the lifespan to grow, love, learn and care for each other is truly a miracle.  The joy we gain from relationships and our interdependence with others is so incredibly complex and wonderful...greatly exceeding anything humans could create.

"You have given them dominion over the works of your hands..."

We, as human beings, share in the "dignity of God" by our role over the rest of God's creation.  "Having dominion over the works of God's hands" reminds us of the great honor and profound responsibility to care for our planet and for each other.  For me, taking time to be mindful to notice and enjoy God's creation and remembering I have a part in taking care of this earth and those on it makes my heart sing with joy again and again....

"O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

 

 Source:  The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Psalms 8

-Angie Nobles

Ps 119:97-120        Luke 12:22-31

I’ve always found this passage in Luke “The Healing of a Demon-possessed Man” to be hard to read.  It’s hard for me to grasp the intensity of this man’s struggle and of course, the poor pigs, what did they do?  Did they deserve that?  I would like to think that this was just  a dramatic illustration that didn’t really happen.

Whether you are on the side of “literalism” or view scriptures as “sacred stories”, we can’t deny that there are those who are wrought with demons and that we all at some level struggle with our own demons.  For me, this scripture is about acknowledging that I do have demons.  Acknowledging them not to make myself feel worse, but to keep them present so they don’t grow inside me to the same intensity as the man in this story.

To me, spirituality is growing as a person day-to-day.  Getting to know yourself and accepting yourself where you are.  The golden rule says “treat your neighbour as yourself”.  Sometimes I think we need to turn that around and be as kind and forgiving to ourselves as we are to our neighbours.  And, when we struggle with our demons we need to acknowledge that they are there and clothe ourselves with the “cloak of compassion”.

-Brook Ward

Ps 78:1-39      Luke 11:1-13

To me the scripture of Luke 11:1-13 means that the answer of God doesn’t come in an instant; but rather like every other thing of any worth in life it takes time. In the story of Luke, Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray to God and then goes to tell them another story/lesson. The story is about a friend who needs something for his other friend, and so after some time the person he is asking gets up and gives him all that he needs.

In today’s world we sometimes have another name other than persistence such as being a pest or being stubborn. When I think back on this scripture I wonder, did the man really get up after saying no just once and did he really give everything the man needed? Sometimes I’ll make smoothies, but I ask right after dinner, so my dad tells me to wait, so I ask again after ten minutes and so on until he finally lets me make them. When I get mad at my brother, I often am looking to God and ask for guidance. I never get a quick answer, but everything works out.

When reflecting on myself and also writing this reflection, I realized that God doesn’t give answers immediately, but rather he allows us a chance to figure things out while giving us a nudge in the right direction. I will try not to ask for God’s help and answer immediately, but try to figure it out and be persistent in asking for help over a period of time.

Carson Ward

Psalm 80 is a prayer for the restoration of Israel. Verses 8-13 describe Israel as a beautiful vine that once flourished in the light of God’s love. But that vine has been cut down, burned, and left to be eaten by scavenging animals. The refrain of the psalm
begs:

“Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!”

Verse 17 says: “But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man who you have made strong for yourself!”

Today’s passage from the Gospel of Luke closely echoes the language of this psalm. In it, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do the crowds say I am?” He gets a variety of answers, mostly variations on a reincarnation or re-appearance of a historic prophet. Then Jesus asks them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter, ever the impulsive one in the bunch, blurts out: “The Messiah of God.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: ““What is the difference between Peter and the others? … Peter is nobody really, nobody but a person who confesses, a person who has met Christ standing in his path and has recognized him, and who now confesses his faith in Christ.”

The Messiah! God has sent his Messiah to Israel! If that’s not the face of God shining on his people, nothing is! There were so many hopes and expectations bound up in that single word. But they were all unmistakably triumphant. The Messiah would lead Israel to glorious victory.

In the rest of the passage, Jesus does not deny the title John has given to him, but neither does he prophesy triumph or glory for the Messiah: “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed...” Perhaps being the Messiah is more complicated than the disciples had realized. Maybe following the Messiah is more complicated too.

Who do you say I am? Who do we, Covenant Church, say Jesus is? I bet if you asked this question of 10 members of our community, you would get at least 15 different answers. Jesus was a teacher. He was a culture warrior. He was a Gnostic. He was a peasant revolutionary. He was a preacher. He was an Essene. He was a carpenter. He was a Socialist. He was a healer. He was a liberator. He was a prophet. He was a Communist. He was the Son of God. He was a feminist. He is our Savior.

                                                                        Angela Ledgerwood

Beverly:  In today’s Psalm, David praises God for getting him out of a bad scrape with an enemy.  He talks about how God protected him since he was in God’s favor and worshiped God in the right way.  What does that mean, though?  Some preachers on TV blame hurricanes on people who they don’t like or don’t agree with.  Or they say that they were spared from a natural disaster because God protected them.  Does that mean God hates the people in Japan who died after the tidal wave or the people on that plane in Malaysia?  Or the people killed by the mudslide in Washington?  Does it mean that because we survived a hurricane that God somehow loves us more? 

Jack:  For me, I don’t believe that God would kill hundreds of people just because they did something wrong.  The Bible says that God is a forgiving God and I wouldn’t believe that God would kill that many people like that, or kill anybody, for that matter.  Even if they are not Christian or if they don’t believe in any god or goddess, which is not a sin or something to kill for.  God is forgiving and will always forgive anyone no matter what.

Jack Daggett

Beverly Rodgers

I like the poetry of Billy Collins. I’m currently reading his tenth collection entitled Aimless Love. My deepening appreciation of poetry is a direct legacy of Jay, Jeremy, Jeannie, Kathleen, Sally, Rebecca and all of you poets and poetry-lovers who weave it into worship. 

Collins will open with something ordinary, pour you a taste that slides down easily, and decant you somewhere profound. He himself says his poems begin in Kansas and end in Oz. Magic. A New Yorker reviewer says his unmistakable voice brings together plain speech and imaginative wonder. I welcome plain speech for an immediate way in, a sense of connection, an invitation. With imaginative wonder we win a look behind the curtain, a breathtaking experience, an opening of our throats exhaling to ahhhhh.

As we glide along with him from ordinary to extraordinary, his effortless grace turns water into wine, words into worlds. He also presents an openness to whatever’s next, expressed in these lines from the title poem:

But my heart is always propped up

in a field on its tripod,

ready for the next arrow.

This is transforming — a heart propped up — prepared to receive whatever is coming at it, resting sturdily on three legs, standing on higher ground, willingly allowing the next pierce. This is love, the power of God alive on earth.

Kay Duncan

Ps 106:1-12       Luke 8:40-56

Really? 

Admittedly, this was my first response when reading the passage for today out of Luke.  Did Jesus really heal a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years simply by her touching him?  Was she really bleeding for 12 years?  Did Jesus really heal the presumably dead daughter of Jairus?

Reading this passage ironically took me to "Orange is the New Black".  This is a Netflix original series focusing on women in a federal prison and is one of my new guilty pleasures.  One of the characters is convinced that she has the healing powers of Jesus and eventually ends up in the psychiatry ward.  In today’s world it does not seem logical that someone can actually heal someone though the “holy spirit of Jesus” and if they think they can society often labels them as mentally insane or possibly a TV Evangelist!

What I do believe is that there is healing power in whatever your God is.  I find healing in our congregation and the love we have for each other. When I am among this community it feeds me and gives me what I need to learn from our sacred stories and “the healing powers of Jesus.”   What is more healing than that?

-Jason Stark

Ps 119:73-96        Luke 8:26-39

I worry almost every single part of the day. Like what should I wear, when I’m going to eat, and what’s happening around me etc… I want to know what’s going on around me so I’m prepared and mobile and ready for whatever going to come at me. Worrying definitely gets to my head a lot. I get so stressed out and I think of what possibly might go wrong of the situation. At that moment I pray to God to make sure everything will be all right and I won’t have to worry as much. But the weird thing is, is that whenever I worry about something and I think it’s going to go horribly wrong, it turns out to be perfect. For example, whenever I try something new or meet new people, I worry that I might get injured or I won’t like doing what I’m doing. My parents say to not worry so much and to go with the flow. Like when I’m about to take a test or about to perform something, I worry and think of the negative. But whatever happens, happens for a reason right?                                       

I’m very cautious of my family. Whenever we go on trips I sometimes look after my little brother to make sure he doesn’t drown himself or get hit by a car. I worry about those things, but luckily I’m not by myself. My parents are there with me to help whether I want it or not. So worrying is a problem for me and it’s supporting. And that support is coming from God  and he is saying to not worry so much and he’ll guide me along the way.

                                                            Parker Ward

Ps 70         Luke 8:16-25

I have spent thousands of hours on boats of one kind or another.  I have been seriously afraid only once.  All night we had motored southward in the southern Chesapeake as the wind built to 35 knots, piling up water that crashed over our starboard bow and stretched the full length of our boat.  One crew member fell ill early in the night, leaving only two of us--soaking wet from the spray and cold from the wind--to navigate, steer, brew coffee, and find a 3-am snack.  Dawn came, and we pointed north into the jetties at Cape Charles, VA.  Halfway into the jetties, our engine died.  And it wouldn’t start again.  I raced to the foredeck and released the anchor latch pin. Sloshing between 2 rock walls built into the bay, no engine power, high winds, waiting for the order to drop anchor and avoid crashing into the rocks, I was scared.

Facing a similar situation, the disciples screamed at Jesus.  Were they angry at him for sleeping rather than standing his watch in a difficult situation?  They don’t seem to have known that Jesus could (or would) calm the storm.  I have no more faith than did Jesus’ disciples.  In my storms, however, there have appeared several influences that have tended to calm the waves and wind.  A visit with a good friend, singing along with a familiar song, a day walking in the woods, a morning digging in dirt, an afternoon nap, turning a wrench or running a mile, a truly fantastic meal.  What are the calming influences you seek in your life?  What are the calming influences you might offer others in their storms?