Words 2.24

 Words Twice a Week        2.24

The Prayer for Peace in the World -

God of all Creation, 

let the peace which is in your heart 

flow into your world, 

and may all who share your world 

live together in justice, kindness and humility. 

We ask it in the name of Jesus, Prince of Peace. Amen.

And then here’s really good prayer that The Church of the Heavenly Rest sent out -

As the fever of day calms towards twilight

May all that is strained in us come to ease.

   We pray for all who suffered violence today,

   May an unexpected serenity surprise them.

For those who risk their lives each day for peace,

May their hearts glimpse providence at the heart of history.

   That those who make riches from violence and war

   Might hear in their dreams the cries of the lost.

That we might see through our fear of each other

A new vision to heal our fatal attraction to aggression.

   That those who enjoy the privilege of peace

   Might not forget their tormented brothers and sisters.

That the wolf might lie down with the lamb,

That our swords be beaten into ploughshares

   And no hurt or harm be done

   Anywhere along the holy mountain.

— John O’Donohue

Some thoughts on some of the lessons for next Sunday – Sunday of the Transfiguration

Exodus 34:29-35  

+ Moses goes up the mountain to talk with God and when he comes down his face shines so brightly he needs to put a veil over it.  When do we use a veil?  Why?

+ It suggests the holiness of God – where do we experience that?

Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a)

+ Context – Jesus just gave the first passion prediction complete with Peter’s confession, a word about discipleship (ending with line about how “some will not die before seeing the kingdom of God/Time of God’s Peace)”, then eight days later (a new creation?) takes Peter, James, and John aside (up the mountain) where he is “Transfigured”.  Is this Luke suggesting that the new creation/kingdom of God/Time of God’s Peace is with us in Jesus?

+ in the Transfiguration, we come face to face with the reality that Jesus is both human and divine.  This is a reality that we cannot really process. One writer suggests we express it in hymns, poems.

+ The disciples are heavy with sleep but stay awake – does this suggest a “thin place/thin time” inbetween states of being when they glimpse a reality beyond our own?  Or is it meant to mirror our confusion with this human/divine thing?

+ they stay awake here, as opposed to Gethsemane where they slept.  Did the excitement of the moment keep them awake?  What might they have seen in Gethsemane?

+ Apparently in the Orthodox tradition this is when they understand Jesus becoming God.  How do you think about this human and divine thing?

+ Moses and Elijah appear.  The Law and the Prophet?  And it’s like if you could invite three people to dinner - what do you suppose they talked about?  Here’s something to think about - traditionally we say Moses and Elijah were maybe telling Jesus what the Crucifixion/Resurrection would be like – but why would Jesus need anyone to tell him anything?  What might he be saying to them?

+ Peter says “It’s good to be here; let’s build booths”  and Luke immediately suggests that there is something inadequate about that.  It’s probably more of a worship image than a “let’s put down roots.”  I’m glad about that.  We do enough worrying about our buildings.  Possibly what’s inadequate is that Peter seems to be equating Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, when certainly Jesus would be superior.

+ The cloud comes and the voice from the cloud – “This is my Son, Listen to him.”  What has Jesus just said?  Passion prediction, pick up your cross, and (immediately before!) “some will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God”.  What is he going to say next?  “How much longer must I bear with you...Let these words sink into your heads – the son of man is going to be handed over to humans.”  And another passion prediction.

+ They told no one what they had seen, even though Jesus does not tell them to keep quiet as he does in Matthew and Mark.  Why?

+ On the next day (vs37) - The disciples are still not able to heal the boy.  The Kingdom of God/Time of God’s Peace is still among us, but hidden?  Does this justify Jesus’ “faithless and perverse generation”?  Seems harsh to me.  It does suggest that healing (spiritual? Physical?) is part of the Time of God’s Peace.

+ we think of the Transfiguration pointing back to Jesus’ baptism and ahead to the Crucifixion/Resurrection – where do you see connections?

That’s what I got for now…..

Comments are moderated – by me – and may take a day to appear

Words 2.20

 Words Twice a Week       2.20

Some days from the church calendar -

Feb 22  Eric Liddell  The Chariots of Fire guy!  Born January 16, 1902, he was a Scottish sprinter, rugby player, and Christian missionary. Born in Qing China to Scottish missionary parents, he attended boarding school near London, spending time when possible with his family in Edinburgh, and afterwards attended the University of Edinburgh.  At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Liddell refused to run in the heats for his favored 100 meters because they were held on a Sunday. Instead he competed in the 400 meters held on a weekday, a race that he won. He returned to China in 1925 to serve as a missionary teacher. Aside from two furloughs in Scotland, he remained in China until his death in a Japanese civilian internment camp in 1945.

Feb 24  Saint Matthias  He was chosen to replace Judas.  According to Acts, he was with Jesus from his baptism through the resurrection, although he is never mentioned in any of the gospels.  It does make you wonder – how did he feel about the position, how did the others feel about him?  And this is kind of interesting – he is a patron saint of: alcoholics; carpenters; tailors; Gary, Indiana; Great Falls-Billings, Montana?

Also on Feb 24 Amanda Berry Smith    Born in slavery, she was a Methodist preacher and former slave who funded The Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned and Destitute Colored Children. She was a leader in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, preaching the doctrine of entire sanctification throughout Methodist camp meetings across the world.  She was referred to as "God's image carved in ebony". 

Feb 26    Emily Malbone Morgan   In 1883, Morgan's childhood friend, Adelyn Howard, fell ill with a hip disease, which made her a lonely invalid in a town in which she had no friends or family. The following year, Morgan, with Howard and Harriet Hastings of Wellesley, Massachusetts founded the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, to allow the shut-in Adelyn—and other religious women who valued thanksgiving, intercessory prayer, and simplicity of life—to pray and work for social justice. Morgan had a talent for providing hospitality, and considered her "greatest desire...has always been to make tired people rested and happy."  The group ministered to women working in the nearby textile mills, in part by establishing houses throughout the northeastern United States where such working-class women and their children could vacation.

Also on Feb 26  Photine – the Woman at the Well!  Like the woman at the well, I was seeking for things that could not satisfy….  Or Jesus met the woman at the well….

And some days from the earth/world calendar -

Feb 21

+ Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965.

+ Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto in 1848.  The New Yorker was first published in 1925.

+ W.H. Auden was born in 1907

Feb 22

+ it’s 2.22.22.  I don’t know what that means!

+ the first Woolworth store opened in 1879

Feb 23

+ Woody Guthrie wrote This Land Is Your Land in 1940 in New York.

+ The Gutenberg Bible was published in 1455

+ Stan Laurel died in 1965.  We watched the recent Stan and Ollie film (I think it somehow just ended up in our Netflix queue) and it was touching.  The two guys at the end of their career and their lives.  The film takes a few liberties, but apparently the text at the end is accurate – that Stan refused all acting roles after Oliver died, but that the continued to write material for them until he died.  He lived his final years in a small flat in Santa Monica, CA. He continued to correspond with fans, and his phone number was listed in the local directory.  He influenced Jerry Lewis and Dick Van Dyke among others.  Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!"  A few minutes later he died quietly in his armchair.  At his funeral service Buster Keaton said, "Chaplin wasn't the funniest. I wasn't the funniest; this man was the funniest." Dick Van Dyke gave the eulogy and read The Clown's Prayer. Laurel had quipped, "If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again."

+ George Fredrick Handel died in 1685.  He wrote Messiah in 1741.  He also wrote four coronation anthems, one of which Zadok the Priest has been played/sung at every British Coronation since 1727.

+ The first mass inoculation for polio was held.

Feb 24

+ Gregorian calendar was instituted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.  It is a reform of the Julien calendar, mainly having to do with the spacing of Leap days and years.  Quick now – what’s the rule for leap years?  The reform also advanced the date by 10 days: Thursday 4 October 1582 was followed by Friday 15 October 1582.

Feb 25

+ Muhammad Ali, still known as Cassius Clay, became World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, by beating -                 . in 1964.  That was later that year that he denounced his “slave name” and took the name Muhammad Ali.

Feb 26

+ It’s the birthday of John Harvey Kellogg – Corn Flakes for breakfast?

Feb 27

+ The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch "council communist", was the apparent culprit; however, Hitler attributed the fire to Communist agitators. He used it as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government, and induced President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties, and pursue a "ruthless confrontation" with the Communists. This made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany.

That’s what I got for now…..

Comments are moderated – by me – and may take a day to appear

Words 2.17

 Words Twice a Week        2.17

And here’s one for free from The Writer’s Almanac -

It's the birthday (the 17th) of the man who said, "A good sermon should be like a woman's skirt: short enough to arouse interest but long enough to cover the essentials." That's writer and (Church of England then Roman Catholic) priest Ronald Knox, born in Kibworth, England (1888). 

Some thoughts on some of the lectionary texts for this week – Seventh after Epiphany

Genesis 45:3-11, 15

+ Joseph and his brothers.  Here’s nice piece from Fred Buechner on brothers -

   CAIN MURDERED ABEL. Jacob cheated Esau. Joseph's brothers sold him for twenty shekels and would probably have paid twice that to get him out of their hair. The Prodigal's elder brother couldn't stand being in the same room with him even with a fatted calf for inducement. As the Bible presents it, one of the closest of all relationships is also one of the saddest. 

   Envy and fear are apparently near to the heart of it—one brother is afraid the other is loved more, favored more, given and forgiven more, gets away with more—but that doesn't seem enough of an explanation somehow. You have a sense of signals crossed, of opportunities missed, of messages unheard or unheeded, in short of love gone wrong. You can't help thinking what friends they might have been if they hadn't been enemies. Cain giving Abel a hand with the spring lambing. Jacob letting Esau have his pottage just for the hell of it.   

   We all have the same dark secrets and the same bright hopes. We come from the same place and are headed in the same direction. Above everything else maybe, we all want to be known by each other and to know each other. Iraq and the United States, the Arabs and the Israelis, the terrorists and the terrorized—we are all of us brothers, all of us sisters. 

+ And here’s one from Henri Nouwen -

In our world full of strangers, estranged from their own past, culture, and country, from their neighbors, friends, and family, from their deepest self and their God, we witness a painful search for a hospitable place where life can be lived without fear and where community can be found. Although many, we might say even most, strangers in this world become easily the victim of a fearful hostility, it is possible for men and women and obligatory for Christians to offer an open and hospitable space where strangers can cast off their strangeness and become our fellow human beings. The movement from hostility to hospitality is hard and full of difficulties. Our society seems to be increasingly full of fearful, defensive, aggressive people, anxiously clinging to their property and inclined to look at their surrounding world with suspicion, always expecting an enemy to suddenly appear, intrude, and do harm. But still—that is our vocation: to convert the hostis into a hospes, the enemy into a guest, and to create the free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced.

+ the story really is a good one as we see Joseph converting hostis into hospes before our eyes.  How do you suppose the brothers felt?

Luke 6:27-38

+ “Love your enemies, do good, bless, pray…”  One writer notes “Love” here is more of a verb than a noun.  It means “Do good, bless, pray…” and we can do those no matter how we feel.

+ another writer notes that we are “Kingdom people” and Kingdom people do not reciprocate – in vs 27-31 towards those who mistreat you, in vs 32-36 towards those who treat us well.

+ do you buy the idea that if we (Christians, church folks, ???) all did this the Time of God’s Peace would be here?  I don’t really.  My first thought was what would God have to do for this to make sense?

+ the bit from Fred Craddock last week about there being no exhortations, no urging, helps.  This is not about what we do to bring in the Kingdom/Time of God’s Peace – the Time of God’s Peace is beginning/has begun and this is how we live in it.  

+ so this is where I’m ending up – The Time of God’s Peace/Kingdom of Heaven is beginning in Jesus, or is being activated in some way, or we are just learning about it – and we can become Kingdom People, Children of God.  So we live this way – loving enemies, doing good to all, because this is how God is and we are children of God.  This is how God’s People/our family lives, whether or not it makes any difference in the world.  “Other people do _______, our family doesn’t do that.” - I can almost hear my mom explaining it to me.

+ A bit more from Craddock – The difficulty many of us have with God’s kindness is therefore twofold.  First, God behaves with favor toward persons whose life-style does not merit such favor; and secondly, we are to relate to others with this same graciousness.  God’s people do not so often quarrel with God about how they themselves are treated as they do about how God is too generous toward others.

+ and in vs 37-42, the sense is not “Do not judge so that you won’t be judged;...forgive so that you will be forgiven,...give so that more will be given to you.”  It is more “Don’t judge – you are not going to be judged; forgive – you are (and are going to be) forgiven; give – you have been given (and will be given) much.”  The words are enabling/empowering more than exhorting.

+ So that’s where I am – how about you?

That’s what I got for now…..

Comments are moderated – by me – and may take a day to appear

Words 2.13

 Words Twice a Week        2.13

A little light, maybe.  The Olympics are still going on.  And there was the Super Bowl, and it’s Valentines Day.  But here’s what I got -

Some days from the church calendar -

Feb 15 – Thomas Bray  He was born in Shropshire, England, in either 1656 or 1658.  He was a clergy and abolitionist.  He was instrumental in establishing the church of England in Maryland.  He spoke out against slavery and the oppression of Native Americans.  He was also instrumental in establishing The Society for the propagation of  Christian Knowledge (kind of like the American Bible Society in the United States) and had a vision for a library in each parish.

Feb 18  Martin Luther – well, he was Martin Luther!  He died on this day in 1546.  (Hug a Lutheran today?)

Feb 20  Frederick Douglass  He was born into slavery, but became a leader in the abolitionist movement.  It really is worth reading the story of his early life, either in the Wikipedia entry (above) or in one of his three autobiographies - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), which became a bestseller and was influential in promoting the cause of abolition; My Bondage and My Freedom (1855); Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.  (Available in several formats at PWPL.)  Without his permission, Douglass became the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate and Vice Presidential nominee of Victoria Woodhull, on the Equal Rights Party ticket.

Some days from the world/earth calendar -

Feb 14 

+ Yes, it’s Valentine’s Day.  Probably too late to do anything but pick up some flowers or a chocolate heart.  Or, Garrison Keillor suggests writing a love poem, or copying one of his!  He said, “Copy it, but put your name on it – your wife doesn’t want a love poem from me!”  Or – pick up a “HeartBaker Pizza from Papa Murphy’s!  That’s what we’re going to do, although after the free 20 chicken wings from Applebee’s yesterday, we are not completely sure that’s a good idea!!

+ There is some indication that Frederick Douglass (see above!) may have been born on this day – apparently his mother, who he never saw in the daylight, she was only there to get him to bed at night, called him her “little Valentine”.

+ Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876.  He and somebody names Grey both filed on the same day.  Bell won.  A good thing?  Anyway, a major event in the development of communication technology!

Feb 15

+ world’s largest peace demonstration – 30 million people in 600 cities against the Iraq War.

+ The United Kingdom and Ireland decimalized their currency in 1971.  Before that a pound was 240 pence or 20 shillings.  If they could do that, it would seem like we could do it to our weights and measurements – how many ounces in a pound? How many in a quart?  Does that system make any sense at all?

+ Birthday of Ernest Shackleton.  I keep bring him up – can’t help it, it’s just too fantastic a story!  Also the birthday of Susan B Anthony – another fantastic story.

Feb 16

+ The Kyoto Protocol went into effect in 2005.  Solving the climate change issue?  (That was sarcasm.)

+ the burial chamber of Tutankhamun was opened in 1923 – and the “Curse of Tutankhamun”?

+ Harold Arlen was born on this day.  If you listen to Sounds of the American Musical you probably have heard him mentioned.  He wrote or collaborated on many of the Songs of the American Songbook – Somewhere over the Rainbow, Stormy Weather, Lydia the Tattooed Lady, Get Happy, Let’s Fall in Love, and many more.  In the 1940s, he teamed up with lyricist Johnny Mercer, and continued to write hit songs like "Blues in the Night", "Out of this World", "That Old Black Magic", "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive", "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home", "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)".

Feb 18

+ Pluto was discovered in 1930.  I’m looking, but I still don’t see it!

+ Michelangelo died in 1564.  Well, he was Michelangelo!

+ John Batterson Stetson died in 1906.  You can learn about his mansion here.  Hey, Tripadvisor says it’s one of the top 5 things to do in Florida!  I’d say do it before you wrestle the aligator!

Feb 19

+ FDR signed the executive order 9066 in 1942, sending people of Japanese ancestry to internment camps.  This was in the United States.

+ Friedensreich Hundertwasser died in 2000.  Check him out!  And he wore unmatching socks!

Feb 20

+ Ansel Adams was born in 1902.  Apparently he was an unruly child, hyper, possibly dyslexic.  For his twelfth birthday, his family gave him a camera and a trip to Yosemite.  You know the rest of the story!

+ Swan Lake premiered in 1877.  (Ok, this is one of those things where there are two different calendars – it was today in the old system, it was Mar 4 in the new system!)  Kanopy at the Library has the Ekman production – it is on a stage covered with water.  We watched it several years ago – kind of weird.  I don’t know about other streaming services or dvd’s.  I don’t think PWPL has a video of it – if you search their catalog for Swan Lake video you get Star Wars.  Apparently Obi-Wan-Keno-be is what triggers it!  So – watch Star Wars instead?  I don’t think so.  (Ok – try to get yourself into the 20th century at least, Charlie – you can probably stream it on YouTube.)

+ the Post Office was established in 1792.  No snarky remarks from me.  They are delivering our four covid home tests today – Monday.  And I did mail a couple of Valentines out of state – not sure if they made it or not.  Hope so.  Anyway – I like the Post Office.

That’s what I got for now…..

Comments are moderated – by me – and may take a day to appear

Words 2.10

 Words Twice a Week        2.10

Some thoughts on some of the lessons for this Sunday – Sixth after Epiphany

Jer 17.5-10

+ trust in mortals vs trust in God.  How does this play out in real life?  When do we trust in God or trust in ourselves, in human leaders?  What different things do we do, what different decisions do we make?  When we get to Luke and the power radiating out from Jesus, some people would suggest the faith experience has gotten watered down.

+ “God tests the mind, searches the heart, so that each gets what they deserve.”  Does it really say that?  If so, how would that sit with you?  Do you see that working out in real life?

+ “trust” is not belief in propositions, but commitment, devotion.

+ the two choices lead to two consequences or “rewards” – an arid life as a shrub or an abundant life as a tree!

+ one writer notes “the seductions of human self-sufficiency”.  I feel much better about stuff I can do myself than stuff I have to ask for help with.

+ vs9 The heart is devious above all else…Well that’s a really unhappy lesson for the day before Valentines Day!!!  For Jeremiah, the heart is a figure for all that is right or wrong with human will and conduct.  And he sees the heart laced with evil – greed, fear, longing for power, self-centeredness, “me first”…  How does that fit with telling someone you love that they are in your heart?  Of course the heart is also laced with love, caring, self-giving, etc.  It’s like the two wolves - which one do we listen to.  But it is more than that – God will cleanse and heal the broken heart and the sin-sick soul.  

+ the tree image – something of a two way experience, trees also gather water.

Psalm 1

+ nice progression – “follow the advice of the wicked, take the path that sinners tread, and finally sit down and settle in with the scoffers” – if we listen to the Law instead, we avoid that progression.

+ where do we “take advice from”?

+ “meditating on the Law day and night” – what would that look like?  What about football, what about tv shows, novels, poetry, dance, drama, work(!) – in short – life?

+ trees and water – a two way thing.  Trees “gather” water.

+ scholars suggest Ps 1 is something of a heading for the whole book, and that probably Jeremiah influenced it, that the psalmist wrote a poem extending the lines from Jeremiah.

+ if so, it would be important to consider what the psalmist means by “happy”.  The happy person is one who is open to God’s guidance/Torah/instruction and thus finds reliable resources for life in all circumstances.

+ several writers note that “taken in isolation” both Jeremiah and Psalm 1 “fail the test of empirical observation”.  (As do Jesus’ words below.  There is an eschatological cast to this. ”Today these words have been fulfilled in your hearing.”  The Kingdom of God/The Time of God’s Peace” is both today and to come.  How do we think about that, talk about that?  This is NOT an easily answered question!!)

+ the chaff – do we see this happening, or will it really take some kind of a divine intrusion? (and if so, does it really matter?)  And note that the chaff here simply blows away.  There’s nothing about any fire.  Here’s a prayer 

   Eternal God,

   we sink our toes down deep into your mercy and grace,

   and draw life from you like a tree by the water.

   In your world,

   chaff became simply the building blocks of new soil.

   In our world, chaff too often becomes waste.

   Help us think about this.  Amen.

1 Cor 15.12-20

+ Jesus raised, resurrection of the dead – how do we think about these things?

Luke 6.17-26

+ so much has happened in these last few weeks in our reading of the Gospel of Luke -

After Jesus preached in the synagogue (our reading from two weeks ago)

  + he cast out a demon in the synagogue

  + he healed Simon’s mother in law (wait a minute – we haven’t met any Simon yet!)

  + he did more exorcisms and healings (they were an overlapping categories in that day.)

  + when people entreated him to stay with them he said “I must preach to other cities…”

Then in last week’s reading, the large crowd and the miraculous catch of fish and the call of Simon (although there really wasn’t any “call”, Jesus just said “This is the way life is going to be…”)  Then

  + he healed a leper

  + he healed the paralytic lowered down through the roof.

  + he teamed up with Levi the tax collector

  + he talked about not putting new patches on old garments, new wine in old wineskins

  + he and the disciples “picked grain on the sabbath”

  + he healed a man on the sabbath in the synagogue

     (obviously all of this stirred up the Pharisees who were watching him)

  + he went up the mountain to pray and chose 12 of the disciples (learners, followers) to be apostles (one who are/will be sent out).

So then he comes down to a level place where the crowds are, and the disciples/apostles are with him, and he heals and preaches.

+ the image of power going out from Jesus – almost a Tolkien kind of thing.  One writer notes “the charged atmosphere” of vs17-19.  Is that how we come to church, to Jesus?  Where/when/how do we perceive the saving/healing power of God?  How do we think about prayers for healing?  Another writer notes that Jesus first healed everyone and then preached to them.

+ four blessings, four woes.  And in Luke, they are not “dressed up” as they are in Matthew. Luke doesn’t talk about the “poor in spirit” (hey, that could be me) – he talks about “the poor”. Richard Swanson does this fantastic job of making this clear – “Some would interpret poverty as if it were symbolic and hunger as if it sere some kind of abstract metaphor for wanting to be more “godlike.”...Sometimes just by playing on the embarrassing fact of life that everyone thinks of themselves as relatively impoverished when measured on the scale of the “truly wealthy.” ...Or themselves as the “healthy wealthy” as opposed to the “arrogant wealthy”!  Jesus says that the poor are blessed and so are the hungry.  He doesn’t say anything about “feeling poor” or “feeling hungry”.   He’s talking about actual poverty and actual pit-of-the-stomach hunger.  If you don’t have either one, you aren’t included in the blessing.  How strange.”

+ Fred Craddock notes that there is no contingency, no urging, no exhortations to act in one way or another.  These are not proverbs, or even predictions.  On the lips of Jesus they are “performative.”  In other words, they are changing the world.  Again there is an eschatological cast over all of these lessons – this is what is happening because God is doing something.  What does God need to do to make these words square with our reality. 

+ again, note that the poor have the time of God’s peace “now”; the hungry, the sad “will be” filled, comforted. Does that make a difference?  The Time of God’s Peace is future but it is also now.  It is always “today” for Jesus’ followers.  This is not about “pie in the sky” it is about the Time of God’s Peace in our midst now.  

+ so how can we think about this in more than just Feeding America?  What kind of a world would make sense of what Jesus says?  What prayer would you say to encompass these thoughts?

That’s what I got for now…..

Comments are moderated – by me – and may take a day to appear