scripture

this sunday was interesting.

we discussed what the bible is,

what it was,

and what it should be for us.

it was another hard conversation that created more questions than answers.

gotta love those kinda days.

for me, it's always especially exhausting since i come from a school where i take classes in hermeneutics and systematic theology.

i wonder if all my money is getting me anything

real.

perhaps.

and maybe all my lessons are coming from our questions.

perhaps.

6-17-07

♥

what does it mean to be devoted to a teaching?
to read it repeatedly?
to strap or bind it to one's body?
or simply to remember as you walk through life...
step by step?

who gets to interpret such readings and teachings?
do you? do i? do we?
who do we give permission
to translate,
to decode,
to interpret?

how do we decide what is
truth,
justice,
and faith?
how do we know if we're close-
if we're on the right track?
how do we know where to act,
what to do,
and who to love?

so many questions
with responding echoing silence.
may you continue
to ask
to listen
to respond.
it is in community that we being to understand
what it means
to be devoted
and to walk in faith.

be blessed as you ask your questions.
perhaps that's all we can do right now...
is ask.
perhaps that's when we grow and mature.
perhaps that's when we actually become the church...
step by step.
amen.

act

'they committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles,

the life together,

the common meal,

and the prayers.'

-acts 2:42

6-10-07

♥

let us be blessed

as we join our minds

as we read, learn, and view the past

remembering times of long ago.

let us be blessed

as we join our hands

as we learn the lines of each others faces

the troubles of one anothers hearts

living life together

and changing the world

side by side.

let us be blessed

as we break bread together

as we fill our stomachs and our hearts,

laughing, loving and learning with one another

sitting close enough to feel each others energy and pulse

close enough to hear the beating and the rhythm of our hearts

let us be blessed

as we bow our heads

as we choose to be silent,

if only briefly,

allowing ourselves to be vulnerable

and perhaps strangely warmed.

let us join

minds,

hands,

and hearts

as we travel down this road together.

let us laugh together

let us cry together

let us hope

and change

and dream

together.

ever growing

ever trying

ever loving.

in sickness and in health

in good times and bad

until,

if we choose it,

till death do we part-

and perhaps meeting in a place that we do not know yet.

amen.

preach it

...peter's first sermon in acts.
read it...it was too much for my mind to even begin to wrap itself around.
6-3-07
♥
blessings on you
who stand in the tension and flux
of understanding God.
in the struggle to understand what is
and what isn't,
what was and what will be,
what we are
and what we should be.
blessings on you who step out of the battle waging on
who choose to be peace
who choose to listen
and who choose to be humble in a world that seems so very sure
and so very lost.
blessings...
as you change,
as we revisit places we've been,
and look toward the places we'd like to see.
as we embrace dialogue,
as we choose love,
and as we rejoice in this journey.
continually thankful for the chance to
grow,
the chance to think,
and the ever-present chance to change.
amen.