Leviticus 25:35-55
Psalm 80
Colossians 1:9-14

Matthew 13:1-16

Matthew 13:1-16

callous

Hard skin. Skin that is not supp;e does not function properly. Hmm. Can a callous heart funtion properly. Is it supple enough to be an effective pump?

Lord, help my understanding.

Leviticus 25:1-17
Psalms 93, 96
James 1:2-8, 16-18
Luke 12:13-21

Psalm 93

Waves

Ocean waves mesmerize me. I can sit for hours just watching them roll over the shore or just creating a ripple for out near the horizon. The best place to watch them is from a ledge near the foot of the cliff. Shuffle along the ledge as far as you can go and stand and watch. No conversation is possible, the noise from the ocean is too great. The breakers roar in, crash, and draw back the loose pebbles. The rhythm of roar crash roll alone is powerful, leaving no space for thought except to bow to its greatness.
Two feet of white foam pound the rocks at my feet. The bay was form by this continual battering. Rocks ground down to sandy flour by the mighty waves. A pint (US) of water weighs a pound. How many pints of water are there in one ocean crest? Many millstones to do the work of grinding the rocks.
The continual swirls of foam dancing on the ever changing surface. Bubbles glinting with rainbows and then gone to be replaced by another surge of deafening whiteness.

This Lord is just one aspect of your greatness and power. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, your power to work your will wherever I go.

Gates & Paths

Leviticus 23:23-44
Psalms 75, 76
2 Thessalonians 3:1-18
Matthew 7:13-21

Matthew 7:13-21

Gates

Five bar gates into fields, usually rickety, held to the gate post with binder twine. When you climbed over the gate it it wobbled adding to the thrill of entering a farmer's field, probably without permission but usually trying to follow what is supposed to be a designated public footpath. Public footpath are very illusive. Look at the map and it seems obvious where the path is going. Down the side of the copse, left at the pond and diagonally across the next field.
You get over the gate and there is no pond and field is recently plowed, no diagonal crossing is possible and the gap at the other side is thoroughly disguised in brambles. Then you see the bull in the field and barbed wire where you think the path might be. "O Lord help me to find the right path". I have prayed this whilst walking in the countryside when the details on the map and the terrain did not match. It was the end of a footsore day and dinner is calling. But how much more it is a prayer that I pray everyday when faced with laundry and weeding and cleaning and cooking and shopping and sewing and dogs and children and volunteering and friends to befriend and students and writing and reading and sums and teaching and this route or that, work or not and if so what, and bills to pay, how?

Which way Lord, where is your path? I read the map, but where is the path, the path that leads to eternal life? Send me a postcard, Google the directions, call my cell. How am I to know what you want me to do? Share your love.

Leviticus 23:1-22
Psalm 106:1-18
2 Thessalonians 2:1-17

Matthew 7:1-12

Matthew 7:1-12

Planks and Sawdust

How much sawdust is there in a foot of 2x4? A lot, a great big pile, far more than one or two specks. Jesus was at it again, choosing a comical illustration for a very painful point. This passage is one which I have to keep remembering, especially when I am with my family! It is so easy to be irritated by another person's behavior and ignore our own idiosyncrasies. It is far too painful to give any examples without appearing 'holier than thou'.

12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

The Cardinal

Leviticus 19:26-37
Psalms 70, 71
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
Matthew 6: 25-34

Matthew 6: 25-34

The Cardinal

There is a pair of cardinals in my front yard. They hop around in the azalea bushes outside the dining room window. The lady's body blends in with the branches of the shrubs. It was her bright red beak that I noticed, even that is a similar shade to the remnants of the azalea stamens still lingering on the bush. She is well dressed for her habitat. What is more she did not go to Macy's to buy it- it just came naturally. I saw her man this morning flitting between the azaleas and the magnolia. He is certainly attractive with his bright red coat.

Two other inhabitants of the azaleas are a pair of what I think are Bewick Wrens. Petite and shades of brown and grey with a distinctive white flash across the eye.

So beautiful, so natural.

We worry about what ot wear- a problem for at least the last two thousand years. The world has been around for millions and God seemed to manage dressing it before I started contributing to his plan.

Leviticus 19:1-18
Psalm 72
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 6:7-15

Leviticus 19:1-18

Leviticus 19:18

The First World War finished in 1918. A good year to remember to love your neighbor as yourself.
This verse is a jewel hidden in a much maligned book. Yes there are parts of Leviticus that seem very odd to us- guidance on physical relations between various species and how one should not mutilate your body.

This is one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible and it was also favored by Jesus. When asked for the greatest commandment he quoted part of this verse as the second part of his answer. I always thought that Jesus' answer was an original but as usual he was quoting the Old Testament. Everything we need to know is there.
Now all we have to do is do it.

Exodus 34:18-35
Psalm 40,54
1 Thessalonians 3:1-13
Matthew 5:27-37

Exodus 34:18-35

A Veil

To hide behind or be hidden?

Exodus 34:1-17
Psalm 50
1 Thessalonians 2:13-20
Matthew 5:21-26

Matthew 5:21-26


The Pharisees

The Pharisees were not bad people. They meant well, just like you and me. They were devoted to being the holiest that they could be and for this reason followed the Law, both written and oral so that they did not mess up by missing out on any of God's orders. Today Jesus justifies his statement from yesterday

20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

We know how zealous the Pharisees were for doing the right thing and Jesus says we must be even more ardent than them. To think about murder is just a bad as to murder. I think that Jesus is saying "Do not let anger or malice even get a foothold in your brain." Not only that, if we are aware that we are the cause of another person being angry than we need to sort out the problem.

Perhaps if I tried to emulate Brother Lawrence, the seventeenth century Carmelite monk and focus on God then I might have less problems with myself.

"There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God. Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it."

Wednesday 16th April

Exodus 33:1-23
Psalm 119:49-72
1 Thessalonians 2:1-10
Matthew 5:17-20

Exodus 33:1-23

God was proposing to let the Israelites go to Canaan without his guidance. I think he was taking time out as he was so annoyed with them.
The following was written for a different occasion but it seems sort of fitting for today.

Where?

Lord, where are you?

I drift from day to day

As though you were in another place

Where would you have me go?

Far away I live my life

In the night of day

Groping to find a way.

Where would you have me go?

Shall I go out into the desert

Or stay right where I am?

Come creator, come

Guide my wandering soul.

I am lost in the darkness of life.

Lord find me, show me your light.

How do I know

Where you would have me go?

I see no signpost,

No beacon in the night

I cannot see your light.

I listen for your voice,

The still small voice

I have a different way for you.

Tell me where to go

Will you find my soul

And bring it home?

Guide me day by day.

Exodus 32:21-34
Psalm 45
1 Thessalonians:1-10
Matthew 5:11-16

Matthew 5:11-16

Salt

Did you, on this side of the Atlantic have Smith's Crisps? I suppose not because you would have called them Smith's Chips and that just does not sound the same. Smith's Crisps came in individual packets- Brits were not into large quantities - each with a little twist of blue waxed paper and in that paper was the salt. As a treat I would occasionally be allowed to buy a packet of crisps from the travelling grocer who came down our street. After opening the bag I would search for the little blue treasure, carefully untwist it and sprinkle the contents on my crisps then go away to a safe place and enjoy my treat. Crisps were never the same after they came ready salted. Ready to be eaten, no individual salt, if you did not sprinkle it all on your crisps you could lick some of the grains off the blue paper with the tip of your tongue- not so tasty but exciting. Or crisps without salt - neither tasty nor exciting.
Does that mean that Jesus is saying that we are the excitement in the world? He is keeping us screwed up in a little blue packet ready to be released on a dried piece of potato, ready to transform it into a tasty delight. A smile can brighten a day- both for the giver and the recipient.

Do I have to brighten somebody's day today, to give them a smile and a place in my life, however fleeting our moment of meeting may be?

Jesus, having been around at Creation knew that some sodium is necessary for our well-being. Sodium helps us to maintain the water balance in our cells and helps our nerves and muscles to function. This is the answer.

Monday 14th April

Exodus 32:1-20
Psalms 41, 52
Colossians 3:18-4:18
Matthew 5:1-10

What a day! The Golden Calf, The Tongue as a sharpened razor, Children obey your parents & parents do not embitter your children and The Beatitudes.

Blessed= Fortunate

Matthew 5:1-10

We do not usually think of envying a person who is poor in spirit. I tend to envy those who have the possessions which I think would enhance my life and those who have reached the top of the employment pile. I do not want to be rich or important just to be able to have the freedom and time to serve God unfettered by the cares of the world.

One of my favorite choruses which I learnt as a teenager sitting around the camp fire at summer camp was - and still is

Trust and Obey
For there is no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey.

I think these four simple lines sum up the ten verses.

Saturday 12 April

Matthew 4:18-25


Nets

I have shown you a picture of the beach where we used to play. (April 3) The big rocks are called the Lion and the Sphinx Rock. Behind them are rocky shelves, home for pools captured from the ebbing tide. We took our nets and fished, or just watched as the unsuspecting gobies and prawns lived their lives in the patches of sand on the pool floor. We never caught anything worthwhile. My joy was in the observing, fish looking like sand on the move.
Whether of not I was called from my net, Texas and Pembrokeshire are parted by more than an ocean, an accent and a lack of rock pools. Here is where I am following what I hope is the way of Jesus.

Friday 11th April

Exodus 24:1-18
Psalm 105:1-22
Colossians 2:8-23
Matthew 4:12-17

Thursday April 10

Exodus 20:1-21
Psalm 37:1-18
Colossians 1:24-27
Matthew 4:1-11

Psalm 37:1-18

Be Still

The wind rustling through the leaves, branches gently swaying,
Pink flowers - roses, overblown, petals gently falling; self-sown impatiens in cracks in the path; Mexican heather blending into its neighboring yaupon holly...
Creation is not still.
My heart pumps, my lungs expand and contract, my eyes blink...

Lord, you are here, gently moving in your creation. May my voluntary movements slow down to your pace.

Wednesday 9 April

Exodus 19:16-25
Psalm 38
Colossians 1:15-23
Matthew 3:13-17

Colossians 1:15-23

I believe in Jesus, that he died and rose again, that he is the Son of God, my friend, my Savior.... You know the story and the Episcopalians, Catholics, Methodists and Lutherans know the Apostles and Nicene Creeds. Sometimes I have doubts as to why I do what I do. Am I believing I a fairy story or were Jesus, David, Moses and Abraham real flesh and blood people who were worth writing about?
Six hundred years ago, in 1408 Henry IV quashed Owen Glendower's revolt against the English and Wales again subject to the English. I know about this event, it is well documented in Welsh History. Recently I read The Ladder of Divine Ascent by John Climacus. In a nutshell this is a book about Christian living written in approximately the year 600. His life was influenced by the life of someone who had lived 600 years before him. The year 600 was also around the time that St David was founding his monastery. 600 years is not long in history. They knew what they were following and therefore so do I.

Exodus 19 :1-16
Psalms 26, 28
Colossians 1:1-14
Matthew 3:1-6

Psalm 28

The Pit

Death. All is lost. There is nowhere to turn. Mud walls surround me. Desolation creeps into my mind as the smell of dampness invades my nostrils. All is lost, there is nowhere further to sink as I crouch on the slimy bottom avoiding the more soggy spots. Grief, beyond fear.
Where, O Lord is your love and kindness?
We always intended to have three children and we did. Three boys, two living ones and a corpse. We believe in miracles, that glimpse of life above the dark dripping walls of the pit. We prayed for the light, our friends and their friends prayed and still the darkness was there. The smell of wet soil or the smell of ICU - what is the difference? And the bleeping stopped. The nurses laid Matthew out in a blue coat and put a flower in his hands. When it came to the funeral the was a little white box. We had him dressed in a red coat is Granny had made. I had to go to the funeral home to see the box before we got to the church. It would have been too overpowering to think of what was in the box. Crouching in the slime, not nursing my baby.

Where, O Lord is your love and kindness?

Have you heard the story about the donkey that fell into a pit. The farmer decided the best thing to bury the donkey rather pull him out so the farmer and his friends begin to shovel earth on top of the donkey. At every shovelful he shook himself and climbed on top of the soil, eventually being able to climb out of the pit.

Well the the little village church was filled with our friends and over the next few months many people showered us little kindnesses and eventually we had another baby, and another.

As the last one said to me a few weeks ago "God must really have wanted me to be born".

Monday 7 April

Exodus 18:13-27
Psalm 25
1 Peter 5:1-14
Matthew 3:1-6

1 Peter 5:1-14

Crown

Crowns imply glory, faded crown, has been glory. Fortunately Peter is offering us a crown that will not fade, one that will maintain its brightness and life. A crown of glory, in its pristine state, straight from the maker, shining and bedecked with jewels. What are the jewels in my crown? Gifts from God, gems of life set in solid gold.

Exodus 18:1-12
Psalms 148, 149, 150
1 John 2:7-17
Mark 16:9-20

Psalms 149


Praise yes I must

(Written about five years ago)

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord, I wish I did

I wish to praise the lord with all my life

I wish every breath were a song to you.

Do not put your trust in Enron

In paper money which shrivels away.

In priceless goods, worthless.

Working for what?

Blessed is he who listens to the lord,

Who considers the lilies of the field.

The Lord who clothes the world in beauty

Fills it with good things to eat

And is our rock.

Hear the news, act on the stories,

Feed the hungry

Champion the prisoner

Heal the sick

Comfort the depressed.

Pray for strength

Give rights to the alien

Befriend the lonely and deserted

Don’t stop to assess your wealth.

God rules

My God and your God

Praise him.

Mark 16:9-20

We had this passage two weeks ago so here is a repeat of th post for that day.

The Weather & Resurrection

Today is a sunny day. By Houston standards it is cold. After 3 hours of napping the dog has just managed to get off the sofa. There are days when there is no gleam of sunshine among the clouds; there is no hint of sky- blue or otherwise. Just grayness covering the earth; the weather even mak TV chat shows seem attractive. What was the weather on that first Good Friday- the day that Jesus was hung on the cross? Was it cold and dismal or was the sun shinning brightly overhead? Probably the latter as the average March maximum temperature for Jerusalem is in the high 50sº, or at least it should have been sunny but God covered the sun with darkness for three hours. Did Mary notice the weather the day she watched her son die?

It seems as if God also gone into hibernation. He has forgotten that clouds disperse and the sun shines. The gray is static. Will the brilliant orange crocus ever blaze through the brown earth as the Olympic torch heralds the games? God is working his purpose out just as he was on the Good Friday. The world was grim yet in three days there was rejoicing- well there would have been rejoicing if anybody could have understood what was happening. The disciples saw the empty tomb and were bewildered. Mary Magdalene claimed that she saw Jesus and that he spoke to her but who knew on which side of sanity she really lived. There was a great emptiness of tomb and heart. And yet God was working his purpose out. Jesus filled the road to Emmaus with his knowledge and love. Light filled the travelers’ hearts. Behind the gray clouds God still works out his purpose. The crocus will bloom and God will send his rays of sunshine into our life. Hopefully we shall recognize it for what it is and give God thanks for his purpose.

Friday of Second Easter 4th April

Exodus 16:23-36
Psalm 16, 17
1 Peter 3:13-4:6
John 16:1-15

Psalm 16

Cups

We are in the midst of having our kitchen redecorated. I have certainly been assigned a lot of cups! Unfortunately most of them have some memory associated with them so it is difficult for me to give them away which is probably what I should do. I could take a photograph of each and write a little about it and then give them to the thrift shop thereby supporting somebody less fortunate than me, somebody who has not been assigned so many cups.
There are the mugs which David and I each had when we were in college. Perhaps some of the memories that I keep with those could best be aired in a confessional. There is the cup that my Grandmother used daily for her afternoon cup of tea, it is white china with pink roses, just the same shade of pink as the rose tree in my yard. It is covered with blooms.

The cup I use for my coffee every Saturday morning commemorates the Welsh poet Waldo Williams. The first time I remember anything about Waldo was when we were driving by the prison in Swansea- it is near the sea front. My mother commented that Waldo Williams was in there. Why that was significant to my mother I do not know. He was in prison for refusing to pay income tax as a protest against the Korean War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldo_Williams

I learnt poetry by Waldo for the Urdd Eisteddfod and even won prizes for reciting it though I had know knowledge of the language. The poems were music to my ears.

http://www.100welshheroes.com/en/biography/waldowilliams

Later after he started working again when conscription finished he became friendly with my 'almost parents' and we saw Waldo every weekend. He was gentle and kind with a large smile.

Yes I have my cup. The precious people who God has placed in my path, those who have led me and supported me.

Thursday, Second Week of Easter, 3 April

Exodus 16:10-22
Psalm 18:1-20
1 Peter 2:11-25
John 15:12-27

Psalm 18:1-20

My Rock

I love climbing on the rocks at the beach. Rocks that have been hewn off the cliffs by the battering ram of the Atlantic Ocean. Great waves that visit the cliffs twice daily, pounding the base with angry water, foaming and roaring. These rocks are taller than me. They litter the beach. Some are the vestigial remains of cliffs of long ago.
In my current age I just like to go for excursions over the rocks but in a previous age, whilst I was in elementary school we would go as a gang to the beach and play hide and seek amongst the rocks, squeezing ourselves into crevices, trying not to get scratched by the barnacles which covered the rocks and carefully trying not to slip into the pools hidden in worn away joints and housing delicate sea anemones and sea lettuce.
God the rock houses us all, barnacles, sea lettuce and me. And I play hide and seek too.

Wednesday of Second Week of Easter 2 April

Exodus 15:22-16:10
Psalm 119:1-24
1 Peter 2:1-10
John 15: 1-11

1 Peter 2:1-10

A Stone

When Naomi was in preschool and elementary school she collected stones- from the beach, from church and historic home footpaths. She bought geodes with her spare money. Whilst visiting the University of Missouri at Rolla we were caught peering into the a geology lecture room filled with samples and were invited in for a better look at the rocks. We carried stones from beaches in Wales, carefully protecting them for the journey. To Naomi these were precious trophies, to her father they were excess baggage.
I have a stone, it is red with cream veins. It is very smooth. I do not know where it came from or its significance. As long as I can remember it was in a cream jug on my mother's sideboard. Now I will never know why it is special. I keep it because I know it is precious though I do not know why. Perhaps my faith is the same. I do not know why I believe but I do. I cannot imagine life without the thought of Jesus at my side as my constant companion and the Holy Spirit givng me the courage to do things that I might not otherwise have done and God the Father being in charge of the whole show.