Greetings,
We had good discussion this past Sunday on Rueben Job's Three Simple Rules. We talked about Chapter 1, Do No Harm, and the ways in which we often do harm both to others and ourselves. We discussed how we might avoid doing harm to others and to ourselves, and the difficulties we all face in acting as we need to when others are doing harm. It is easier to do nothing.
Next week, we will move on to chapter 2. We ordered books for the next segment on Prayer last night. We will have those available in the coming weeks. We hope everyone has a great week.
Bryan
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, December 21, 2008
December 21, 2008
Greetings everyone,
Class was really a blessing to us today. We appreciate the insight and the discussion that has come about in the last few weeks. We finished the third sermon and are moving on to the fourth sermon. We will also be looking at Matthew and Luke.
Today we talked about waiting again, but as a beatitude. When we think of the beatitudes, we call to mind the sermon on the mount. Jesus gathered his disciples around him, and began to preach to them by telling them that those who are blessed in his kingdom are those who are often seen as cursed in the world. Blessed are those who mourn, who hunger and thirst for righteousness. We don't enjoy waiting. Waiting sounds like a waste of time to us. But Bonhoeffer calls us to think about a different type of waiting. Waiting becomes a beatitude in the sense that we wait for God expectantly, knowing that he will come.
We hope that, as you wait for Christmas this week, you will find peace in the waiting. We hope that you will see God.
I hope you all have a wonderful week.
Bryan
Class was really a blessing to us today. We appreciate the insight and the discussion that has come about in the last few weeks. We finished the third sermon and are moving on to the fourth sermon. We will also be looking at Matthew and Luke.
Today we talked about waiting again, but as a beatitude. When we think of the beatitudes, we call to mind the sermon on the mount. Jesus gathered his disciples around him, and began to preach to them by telling them that those who are blessed in his kingdom are those who are often seen as cursed in the world. Blessed are those who mourn, who hunger and thirst for righteousness. We don't enjoy waiting. Waiting sounds like a waste of time to us. But Bonhoeffer calls us to think about a different type of waiting. Waiting becomes a beatitude in the sense that we wait for God expectantly, knowing that he will come.
We hope that, as you wait for Christmas this week, you will find peace in the waiting. We hope that you will see God.
I hope you all have a wonderful week.
Bryan
Sunday, December 14, 2008
December 14, 2008
Greetings all,
I'm sorry today's post will be short, but time is a precious commodity right now.
Today we had a full class and great discussion, something I am so thankful for. In the past few weeks, it seems to us that the class has really grown into a group of people that care about one another and one another's perspectives. This is a great blessing to be a part of.
Today we finished Bonhoeffer's second sermon and also looked at Micah 5. Most of us came away from our discussion thinking about waiting in a different light. This will be most helpful to us as we delve into Bonhoeffer's third sermon next week. Ultimately, Bonhoeffer asks us to wait in a position of trust and deep faith. Bonhoeffer challenges us and our faith, and invites us to take our current faith and examine it closely for the purpose of growing that faith into a deeper trust, into a "sure and certain knowledge."
Have a blessed week.
Bryan
I'm sorry today's post will be short, but time is a precious commodity right now.
Today we had a full class and great discussion, something I am so thankful for. In the past few weeks, it seems to us that the class has really grown into a group of people that care about one another and one another's perspectives. This is a great blessing to be a part of.
Today we finished Bonhoeffer's second sermon and also looked at Micah 5. Most of us came away from our discussion thinking about waiting in a different light. This will be most helpful to us as we delve into Bonhoeffer's third sermon next week. Ultimately, Bonhoeffer asks us to wait in a position of trust and deep faith. Bonhoeffer challenges us and our faith, and invites us to take our current faith and examine it closely for the purpose of growing that faith into a deeper trust, into a "sure and certain knowledge."
Have a blessed week.
Bryan
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Sunday December 7, 2008
Thanks to everyone who attended class today. We had tremendous attendance and great discussion on what I thought was a difficult topic. Bonhoeffer's second sermon challenges us from the opening scripture -- Moses is told by God to go to the top of the mountain, to look over the valley into the promised land, to see all that he had hoped for during the wanderings in the desert and the bold proclamations he made to Pharoah, and then to lay down and die without entering. What a challenging scripture, and what a challenging picture of our good and gracious God.
Bonhoeffer puts in front of us a different perspective on God and on Advent. Bonhoeffer asks us to do what so many of us today have trouble doing -- to love God absolutely even when we don't understand our lives and God's action or his inaction in them. A dear friend of mine and I have discussed this many times in the context of marriage and relationship. We all talk about loving one another in truth, but few of us really think about what that means. In the context of relationship, it means seeing the good and the bad in someone, acknowledging that good and bad make them who they are, and still choosing to love them. To love someone, anyone, in truth means we don't ignore the tough parts of their personality. It means we encourage when we'd like to pick on them. It means we hold them up when they cannot do it themselves. All of this is very difficult to do with someone we can see. How do we do it in the context of our relationship with an inscrutable and unseen God?
Bonhoeffer would tell us to stop thinking of God as unseen, but rather to see him in the faces of the least of these. Bonhoeffer would tell us that we have to go to the top of the mountain with Moses, see the vision of our unfulfilled hopes, and trust in the wisdom of a loving God. Will you go to the top of the mountain this Advent season, trusting that our good and gracious God will be with us as we live in the midst of unfulfilled hopes and dreams? Will we sit in front of the Christmas tree and think about the present we really want the most, and still love our God when we know that the present we desire with all of our hearts won't be there this year? Sometimes we just have to sit with our God and wait.
Ultimately, we Methodists affirm the power of choice, but I think we sometimes want to make choices that God is not interested in us making. We have the power to choose to love in the midst of difficult and uncertain times. We have the power to choose to trust when our hopes are unfulfilled. In short, we have the power to choose the most important things in this earth.
Blessings to each of you this week. We will see you next week.
Bryan
Bonhoeffer puts in front of us a different perspective on God and on Advent. Bonhoeffer asks us to do what so many of us today have trouble doing -- to love God absolutely even when we don't understand our lives and God's action or his inaction in them. A dear friend of mine and I have discussed this many times in the context of marriage and relationship. We all talk about loving one another in truth, but few of us really think about what that means. In the context of relationship, it means seeing the good and the bad in someone, acknowledging that good and bad make them who they are, and still choosing to love them. To love someone, anyone, in truth means we don't ignore the tough parts of their personality. It means we encourage when we'd like to pick on them. It means we hold them up when they cannot do it themselves. All of this is very difficult to do with someone we can see. How do we do it in the context of our relationship with an inscrutable and unseen God?
Bonhoeffer would tell us to stop thinking of God as unseen, but rather to see him in the faces of the least of these. Bonhoeffer would tell us that we have to go to the top of the mountain with Moses, see the vision of our unfulfilled hopes, and trust in the wisdom of a loving God. Will you go to the top of the mountain this Advent season, trusting that our good and gracious God will be with us as we live in the midst of unfulfilled hopes and dreams? Will we sit in front of the Christmas tree and think about the present we really want the most, and still love our God when we know that the present we desire with all of our hearts won't be there this year? Sometimes we just have to sit with our God and wait.
Ultimately, we Methodists affirm the power of choice, but I think we sometimes want to make choices that God is not interested in us making. We have the power to choose to love in the midst of difficult and uncertain times. We have the power to choose to trust when our hopes are unfulfilled. In short, we have the power to choose the most important things in this earth.
Blessings to each of you this week. We will see you next week.
Bryan
Monday, December 1, 2008
Advent
I waited a bit before updating the blog because I wanted to get to Advent. I read the newspaper over the weekend and realized that we as a country are experiencing a more frenetic and difficult Advent than in years past. Shoppers converged on stores at the earliest of hours the day after Thanksgiving in hopes of finding the best deals. Many are facing a Christmas season with less than they had last year. We are fearful of what will be announced in the news tomorow. Even today it became official that America has been in a recession for some time. Where is the good news? Where are good tidings of great cheer?
Our class from two weeks ago looked at Bonhoeffer's first sermon in the book of his Christmas Sermons. We also took a hard look at the Parable of the Talents. In looking at this parable, we concluded that there was no way to simply extrapolate a lesson from this parable. It must be looked at and read in context. Jesus' words paint a harsh picture of a master who demands the impossible from those who might not be capable of pulling them off. The parable can't be read simply to stand for the proposition that we must do all we can with what we have. Rather, perhaps it is a commentary on the impossible situation many face when they work for difficult, unforgiving bosses.
With all of this, I hope you won't be discouraged. As we discussed over the past few weeks, Advent is a season of waiting. We wait with great expectations, fueled by a hope born of faith given us by God. We put our trust not in the things of the world, but rather in God. Remember to take a step back from the planning and preparation for Christmas day, and revel in the waiting. Breathe a little more deeply and slowly today. In a publication I got in the mail today, one of the writers quoted Psalm 80. In Psalm 80, the text for the first Sunday of Advent, we read "Good Shepherd, lead and restore us. Lord God of hosts, shine your face upon me. God of restoration, give us new life." If you get discouraged this week, breathe this prayer -- God of restoration, give us new life. And then wait to see how God might answer.
Our class party is this Saturday evening. We hope to see you all there.
Have a blessed week.
Our class from two weeks ago looked at Bonhoeffer's first sermon in the book of his Christmas Sermons. We also took a hard look at the Parable of the Talents. In looking at this parable, we concluded that there was no way to simply extrapolate a lesson from this parable. It must be looked at and read in context. Jesus' words paint a harsh picture of a master who demands the impossible from those who might not be capable of pulling them off. The parable can't be read simply to stand for the proposition that we must do all we can with what we have. Rather, perhaps it is a commentary on the impossible situation many face when they work for difficult, unforgiving bosses.
With all of this, I hope you won't be discouraged. As we discussed over the past few weeks, Advent is a season of waiting. We wait with great expectations, fueled by a hope born of faith given us by God. We put our trust not in the things of the world, but rather in God. Remember to take a step back from the planning and preparation for Christmas day, and revel in the waiting. Breathe a little more deeply and slowly today. In a publication I got in the mail today, one of the writers quoted Psalm 80. In Psalm 80, the text for the first Sunday of Advent, we read "Good Shepherd, lead and restore us. Lord God of hosts, shine your face upon me. God of restoration, give us new life." If you get discouraged this week, breathe this prayer -- God of restoration, give us new life. And then wait to see how God might answer.
Our class party is this Saturday evening. We hope to see you all there.
Have a blessed week.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Sunday November 16, 2008
Greetings all! It was good to see so many of you in class today. For those of you who had other commitments, you were greatly missed.
Today we began our Advent series on Bonhoeffer and the Christmas story. We are using Bonhoeffer's Christmas sermons as a guide through the Advent season, and specifically through the Christmas story as foreshadowed in the Old Testament and as told in the gospels. We are hoping for a couple of guest speakers in December on the subject. We shall see what we are able to do in that regard.
For those of you who missed today, we introduced Bonhoeffer. For a quick two minute introduction to Bonhoeffer, see this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHp0c49ql5s. You might find these additional clips interesting as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F_Bxi-l8fc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAmAQEATxSg&feature=related
There are others out there, some better than others, but you get the idea. For those of you interested in the article about Bonhoeffer that I used today during the class, here is the link.
http://escholarship.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=scjr
The featured topic from that issue was Bonhoeffer. Here is the rest of the journal.
http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol2/iss1/
We looked at the Christmas story as told in Matthew and in Luke, and also mentions of it in Isaiah 7 and Micah 5. For next week, we encourage you to think about the things you are thankful for as we look to Thanksgiving, and to read Isaiah 7 along with the Christmas sermon we will be e-mailing around this week.
We closed today with a brief introduction to the coming season of Advent. Advent, we learned, is about waiting. We wait expectantly for the coming savior. If you remember how eagerly you anticipated Christmas morning as a child, perhaps you can begin to think about what Advent is really all about. We wait patiently for the savior, but patiently does not mean without real longing and real emotion. Sometimes our souls cry out for the touch of our Lord and we wonder why there is no response. Bonhoeffer lived in this world, where God was mysteriously present and yet absent.
For now, let's close with Bonhoeffer's belief in the power of prayer. For Bonhoeffer, who fought against the Nazis in Germany, prayer was resistance. It wasn't a way to prepare to resist. Think of this as you talk to your Father in heaven this week. Resist the urge to despair. Resist the urge to give up hope, for hope is the essence of real longing. We hope that the savior will come. We long for his touch in our lives.
Peace to you this week.
Bryan
Today we began our Advent series on Bonhoeffer and the Christmas story. We are using Bonhoeffer's Christmas sermons as a guide through the Advent season, and specifically through the Christmas story as foreshadowed in the Old Testament and as told in the gospels. We are hoping for a couple of guest speakers in December on the subject. We shall see what we are able to do in that regard.
For those of you who missed today, we introduced Bonhoeffer. For a quick two minute introduction to Bonhoeffer, see this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHp0c49ql5s. You might find these additional clips interesting as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F_Bxi-l8fc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAmAQEATxSg&feature=related
There are others out there, some better than others, but you get the idea. For those of you interested in the article about Bonhoeffer that I used today during the class, here is the link.
http://escholarship.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=scjr
The featured topic from that issue was Bonhoeffer. Here is the rest of the journal.
http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol2/iss1/
We looked at the Christmas story as told in Matthew and in Luke, and also mentions of it in Isaiah 7 and Micah 5. For next week, we encourage you to think about the things you are thankful for as we look to Thanksgiving, and to read Isaiah 7 along with the Christmas sermon we will be e-mailing around this week.
We closed today with a brief introduction to the coming season of Advent. Advent, we learned, is about waiting. We wait expectantly for the coming savior. If you remember how eagerly you anticipated Christmas morning as a child, perhaps you can begin to think about what Advent is really all about. We wait patiently for the savior, but patiently does not mean without real longing and real emotion. Sometimes our souls cry out for the touch of our Lord and we wonder why there is no response. Bonhoeffer lived in this world, where God was mysteriously present and yet absent.
For now, let's close with Bonhoeffer's belief in the power of prayer. For Bonhoeffer, who fought against the Nazis in Germany, prayer was resistance. It wasn't a way to prepare to resist. Think of this as you talk to your Father in heaven this week. Resist the urge to despair. Resist the urge to give up hope, for hope is the essence of real longing. We hope that the savior will come. We long for his touch in our lives.
Peace to you this week.
Bryan
Sunday, November 9, 2008
November 9, 2008
Greetings all. It was good to see those of you who attended class today. For those who could not, you were greatly missed.
We completed our series today on Faith and Politics. Most breathed a great sigh of relief. Over the next few weeks, we will be entering a time of focusing on the Advent Season, and the Christmas story as revealed in the Gospels. We will also be looking at the Advent Season through the eyes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and a collection of his Christmas Sermons.
As you go into this week, I hope that you will carry with you the expectation and anticipation associated with the coming Advent Season. Bonhoeffer writes that "Celebrating Advent means learning how to wait. Waiting is an art which our impatient age has forgotten. We want to pluck the fruit before it has had time to ripen. Greedy eyes are soon disappointed when what they saw as luscious fruit is sour to the taste. In disappointment and disgust they throw it away. The fruit, full of promise rots on the ground. It is rejected without thanks by disappointed hands. The blessedness of waiting is lost on those who cannot wait, and the fulfillment of promise is never theirs. They want quick answers to the deepest questions of life and miss the value of those times of anxious waiting."
We are as a nation in a time of anxious waiting. We look forward to the coming year as a time where everyone, regardless of whether we voted for one candidate or another, anticipates a better time. We look forward to restoration and the fulfillment of promises made. The question is, are we willing to both be patient for the fruit to ripen and to do the hard labor of picking that choice fruit when it is ready? We should all be a little more attentive to the times and to our role in society today as people of faith. Judgment is not our vocation; rather, we are to love and to wait patiently for the coming Savior. We are to pick the fruit from the highest branches and help those who cannot reach it. In short, we have great responsibilities as people of faith who live in great abundance in a community of faith.
God bless you all this week.
Bryan
We completed our series today on Faith and Politics. Most breathed a great sigh of relief. Over the next few weeks, we will be entering a time of focusing on the Advent Season, and the Christmas story as revealed in the Gospels. We will also be looking at the Advent Season through the eyes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and a collection of his Christmas Sermons.
As you go into this week, I hope that you will carry with you the expectation and anticipation associated with the coming Advent Season. Bonhoeffer writes that "Celebrating Advent means learning how to wait. Waiting is an art which our impatient age has forgotten. We want to pluck the fruit before it has had time to ripen. Greedy eyes are soon disappointed when what they saw as luscious fruit is sour to the taste. In disappointment and disgust they throw it away. The fruit, full of promise rots on the ground. It is rejected without thanks by disappointed hands. The blessedness of waiting is lost on those who cannot wait, and the fulfillment of promise is never theirs. They want quick answers to the deepest questions of life and miss the value of those times of anxious waiting."
We are as a nation in a time of anxious waiting. We look forward to the coming year as a time where everyone, regardless of whether we voted for one candidate or another, anticipates a better time. We look forward to restoration and the fulfillment of promises made. The question is, are we willing to both be patient for the fruit to ripen and to do the hard labor of picking that choice fruit when it is ready? We should all be a little more attentive to the times and to our role in society today as people of faith. Judgment is not our vocation; rather, we are to love and to wait patiently for the coming Savior. We are to pick the fruit from the highest branches and help those who cannot reach it. In short, we have great responsibilities as people of faith who live in great abundance in a community of faith.
God bless you all this week.
Bryan
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