May 7, 2006 - Year B -Easter 4

Acts 4:5-12
Psalm 23
1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18

Definitions define. "I am the definer", to modify a phrase.

Is my life taken or given? I am the definer.
Are my actions loving or not? I am the definer.
Am I walking through a dark valley or a green pasture? I am the definer.
Is this healing from Jesus or spontaneous regeneration? I am the definer.

Are all definitions equal, dictionary-wise? Are all definitions up for grab, Humpty Dumpty-wise? Where does my definition end and yours begin? Can I define you out if you define me in?

What needs better defining in your life and in the life of the community of faith and of living that you participate in?

May 14, 2006 - Year B -Easter 5

Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8

To know and to be known, inside out, is a great pleasure and a great threat. As we look at these passages we wrestle with boundarys of intrinsic and shared worth.

What abides in you? An alien waiting to punch through your chest? A waiting prodigal parent? Can you abide being abided in? What then of myself? Do I live or am I but alive when lived through?

As G*D abides in me am I to so abide in others? What does that do to my control of self and others? Does being loved mean I get what I need as an infant, I get to reject it in adolescence, I can always come back to it? Is love contingent upon my response?

Where does this come into play with faithful mothers and over-protective mothers and hurtful mothers? What about the mother part of each one of us, whether biologic mothers or not?

May 21, 2006 - Year B -Easter 6

Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17

Completed joy is something yearned for and yet resisted in light of the joy of the journey.

Conquering joy is something we know all too much about. It is the thrill of victory with nary a trace of the agony of defeat. An impulse to power and connecting that with joy excuses all too many acts of violence, including that preeminent one of war.

Righteous joy conditions us to a legal approach to living and sharing. Judgment and equity, to be joyful, must end up on our side. Any bias toward the poor can be shredded by an appeal to righteous living as evidenced by a claim to joy through property, status, or any other hierarchical system.

Ecstatic joy brings us full circle when we use it as a measuring rod for completedness.

May 28, 2006 - Year B -Easter 7

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
1 John 5:9-13
John 17:6-19

What is your name, your character, your nature?

Might it be Protecter?

Might it be Eternal?

Might it be Ent? [giant tree-like creatures who have become like the trees they shepherd and protect]

Might it be Prophet?

To which of these passages are you drawn? What would be your Myers-Briggs assessment of the personality of each name or passage? If you use a different personality descriptor, what attributes would you give to each character or nature in these passages?

As you look at the communities which which you spend the most time, what is their name, character, nature and your place within such? What needs to change within yourself and your community that your name might be more clearly lived and not simply be an appellation.