ougomonitsya--
inner stillness: when everything is all the same to you, and you live for the day, and you are not dreaming and waiting
John R. Harrison, Pastor

jrharr@lycos.com
Pomme de Terre United Methodist Church
Hermitage, Missouri
Church Links

Pomme de Terre United Methodist Church

Ozarks North District

Missouri Conference

United Methodist Church

The Upper Room



Recent Sermons

"An Understanding Mind"--1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14

"A New Bread"--John 6:35, 41-51

"Looking for Justice" --2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a

"The Arrogance of Power" --2 Samuel 11:1-15

"Joining the Club" --Ephesians 2:11-22



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Some Books I'm
Trying to Read
Seeds of Sensitivity: Deepening Your Spiritual Life by Robert J. Wicks


May I Have This Dance?
by Joyce Rupp


Jesus, the Gift of Love,
by Jean Vanier


Communion, Community, Commonweal: Readings for Spiritual Leadership by John S. Mogabgab


The Cloud of Unknowing,
edited by William Johnston


The Ascent of a Leader,
by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and Ken McElrath


Handbook for the Soul,
by Richard Carlson and Benjamin Shield


Loyalty to God: The Apostles' Creed in Life and Liturgy,
by Theodore W. Jennings, Jr.


Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9

Matthew 5:17-19

Robert Waldrop has asked,

“What is a just nation? One that follows God's word, whose laws are just. Moses spoke these words to a people whose laws included careful protections of the economic rights of the poor--single mothers with children, foreigners, orphans.

“It contained provisions designed to limit the centralization of wealth and power. Nations that protect the poor from oppression are blessed, those who do not are cursed.

“We should remember these things, Moses says, we should not forget them, but rather teach them to our children and grandchildren. Humans--both as individuals, and as communities--often like to forget inconvenient truths and embarrassing episodes.

“God wouldn't let Israel do this, over the centuries prophets and scribes wrote their history down and taught it to their children; and although people often wanted to forget the good things the Lord had done for them and the bad things they had done to each other and to God, this wasn't an option.

"Our own era has the same problem.

“History is captive to ideology, and is often re-written to disguise historical crimes and evade accountability and justice. This is why one of the 'works of justice and peace' is to 'make injustice visible--witness, remember, teach, proclaim, tell.'

“The obedience God is calling us to has been made pretty clear: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, work for justice and be just in your personal relationships, live in peace, be reconciled with our neighbors, beware of religious and political hypocrisy, obey God's commandments, repent of our sin, change our ways.

“Do better. Practice virtue. Examine our consciences.

“Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Francis Martin has written that

“Jesus is the only man who ever kept the covenant perfectly. In his love for his Father, he cherished every indication of God's will, and he taught us to do the same. These readings accent one aspect of that fidelity.

“...Jesus, in being faithful to the will of his Father, did not merely meet the prophetic expectations of his people or the expectations of the law, he fulfilled them. He went beyond them, cherishing them and bringing them to an unsuspected and glorious consummation.

“He enables us to do the same.

“As St. Paul says, in the fourth verse of the eighth chapter of his letter to the Romans, 'The just requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who walk, not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.'

“By the work of the Holy Spirit we can participate in the very inner life of Christ, we can love God and call him 'Abba,' and we can entrust our lives to him.”


Posted by John at 12:01 AM CST
Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Daniel 3:13-30

Matthew 18:21-35

Robert Waldrop has written that

“From the midst of the fiery furnace, surrounded by flames yet protected by an angel of the Lord, comes a cry of repentance. Once mighty and powerful Israel has been brought into slavery, captivity, and powerlessness.

“In this state of physical and spiritual poverty, they begin to understand and reflect on the true nature of service to God, which is more than religious practice, it is a humble heart and a contrite spirit.

“It is a fiery crucible, from which Israel emerges with renewed faith and obedience to covenant.

“From Jesus comes teaching regarding reconciliation and a parable fraught with contradiction for the modern world. Forgive? Hah, revenge is better. We wouldn't want anyone to think we are weak and can't protect ourselves.

“But Jesus doesn't seem to be interested in leaving us an 'out', some way to escape from this dilemma. He says, 'Well, the way you deal with those who sin against you is the way God is going to deal with you.'

“The form may be 'parable,' but there doesn't seem to be anything very ambiguous about its conclusion. We've all known people like the unjust debtor of this parable, a person who has received great mercy, but who refuses to extend such mercy to others.

“It's true of individuals, and it's true of structures such as corporations and governments. We need to learn that if we expect mercy, we must be willing extend our own hands in mercy to others.

“Revenge is one of the most ancient human emotions, but it is a dead end quest that brings no satisfaction, only violence, death, and more tragedy.”

Francis Martin has written that

“In our own lives there are often sufferings that have been imposed on us: childhood abuse, spousal abuse, deep rejection. When we bring these to Jesus we must be honest. First, we must acknowledge before him that we have been sinned against.

“Sometimes this is hard enough. Then we must quietly tell him, 'I forgive the person who has committed this injury.' Do not worry about your emotions; just say those words, perhaps in prayer with another. That movement of your heart shares in the infinity of God's mercy.

“Finally, we must also repent for the anger that has been in our own heart. In this way we come to experience even more deeply the freedom of knowing how much we are forgiven, and in some mysterious way we lift a burden from the other person.”

Tertullian wrote, in the third century,

“No longer does prayer bring an angel of dew to the heart of a fiery furnace, or close up the mouths of lions, or transport to the hungry food from the fields. No longer does it remove all sense of pain by the grace it wins for others.

“But it gives the armor of patience to those who suffer, who feel pain, who are distressed. It strengthens the power of grace, so that faith may know what it is gaining from the Lord and understand what it is suffering for the name of God.”


Posted by John at 3:14 PM CST
Monday, March 20, 2006

2 Kings 5:1-15

Luke 4:24-30

Thomas Merton has written:

“In practice, the way to contemplation is an obscurity so obscure that it is not longer even dramatic. There is nothing left in it that can be grasped and cherished as heroic or even unusual.

“And so, for a contemplative, there is supreme value in the ordinary routine of work and poverty and hardship and monotony that characterize the lives of all the poor and uninteresting and forgotten people in the world.

“Christ, who came on earth to form contemplatives and teach the ways of sanctity and prayer, could easily have surrounded himself with ascetics who starved themselves to death and terrified the people with strange trances.

“But his apostles were workers, fishers, publicans who made themselves conspicuous only by their disregard for most of the intricate network of devotions and ceremonial practices and moral gymnastics of the professionally holy.

“The surest asceticism is the bitter insecurity and labor and nonentity of the really poor. To be utterly dependent on other people. To be ignored and despised and forgotten. To know nothing of decency or comfort. To live in much dirt, and eat bad food.

"To take orders and work hard for little or no money: It is a hard school, and one which most pious people do their best to avoid.

“Many religious people, who say they love God, detest and fear the very thought of a poverty that is real enough to mean insecurity, hunger, dirt.

“And yet you will find those who go down and live among the poor not because they love God (in whom they do not believe) or even because they love the poor, but simply because they hate the rich and want to stir up the poor to hate the rich too.

“If people can suffer these things for the venomous pleasure of hatred, why do so few become poor out of love?”

Again, Thomas Merton writes,

“We must not imagine that the way of self-denial is always a way of tranquility and uninterrupted peace. It does not resolve all doubts and deliver us from every care as if by magic.

“Self-denial attunes us to the Spirit of God and the Spirit may not always sing a tune that harmonizes with our nature. There may be terrible discords instead of tranquil harmonies.

“Self-denial brings order into our lives sometimes in the form of an apparent disorder, and we may sometimes have to find peace as best we can in the midst of confusion.”

Bernard of Clairvaux wrote this in the twelfth century:

“O sacred head, now wounded, With grief and shame weighed down, Now scornfully surrounded With thorns, your only crown. O sacred head, what glory And bliss did once combine; Though now despised and gory, I joy to call you mine!

“How pale you are with anguish, With sore abuse and scorn! Your face, your eyes now languish, Which once were bright as morn. Now from your cheeks has vanished Their color once so fair; From loving lips is banished The splendor that was there.

“What language can I borrow To thank you, dearest friend, For this your dying sorrow, Your mercy without end? Bind me to you forever, Give courage from above; Let not my weakness sever Your bond of lasting love.”


Posted by John at 12:01 AM CST
Saturday, March 18, 2006

Micah 7:14-15, 18-20

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Madeleine L'Engle has written:

“We are so familiar with the parable of the prodigal son that we forget part of the message, and that is the response of the elder brother. As I read and reread scripture it seems evident that God is far more loving than we are, and far more forgiving.

“We do not want God to forgive our enemies, but scripture teaches us that all God wants is for us to repent, to say, 'I'm sorry, father.

'Forgive me,' as the prodigal son does when he comes to himself and recognizes the extent of his folly and wrongdoing. And the father rejoices in his return.

“Then there's the elder brother. We don't like to recognize ourselves in the elder brother who goes off and sulks because the father, so delighted at the return of the younger brother, prepares a great feast. Punishment? A party!

"Because the younger brother has learned the less he has, in a sense, already punished himself. But, like the elder brother, we're apt to think the father much too lenient.”

Dorothy Day has written:

“God is on the side even of the unworthy poor, as we know from the story of Jesus told of his Father and the prodigal son. Charles Peguy, in God Speaks, has explained it perfectly. Readers may object that the prodigal son returned penitent to his father's house.

“But who knows, he might have gone out and squandered money on the next Saturday night; he might have refused to help with the farm work and asked to be sent to finish his education instead, thereby further incurring his brother's righteous wrath, and the war between the worker and the intellectual, or the conservative and the radical, would be on.

“Jesus has another answer to that one: to forgive one's brother seventy times seven. There are always answers, although they are not always calculated to soothe.”

Francis Martin writes:

“The father not only had compassion, running out to meet his son and embracing him; he not only restored the boy to his former dignity, giving him a robe, a ring, and sandals; but he was so full of joy that he declared a feast.

“The father had never renounced the truth of his relationship to the son, and he acted on it. This is mercy, a movement of love based on the truth and the profound justice contained in the relationship.

“Mercy looks to the person; pity looks to the need. God has mercy and never parts from it: he is loyal to the relationship he has established with us in Christ. His heart beats faster when he sees us returning to him.

“The older son, who never left home but who had not had such a banquet in his honor, often elicits from us sympathy and a sense of identification. Perhaps we, too, serve God and 'never once disobey,' but more to secure our own safety than out of love for God.

“We would rather be 'safe,' based on our performance, than free, based on God's love. Such a freedom frightens us. May this parable move us into that realm of freedom. Let us obey and trust in a movement of love based on the truth of who God is and of his relationship to us.”


Posted by John at 12:01 AM CST
Friday, March 17, 2006

Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-28

Matthew 21:33-46

Francis Martin writes,

“Today we are brought once again into contact with the mystery of Christ's passion and death. The theme is the rejection of the beloved son. In the first reading we hear of Joseph, the beloved of Jacob, first assaulted and then sold into slavery by his own brothers.

“In the gospel text Jesus tells his own countrymen a parable concerning the rejection and murder of the only son of the vineyard owner.

“There is a mystery hidden here. Why is it that our rejection of Christ has brought about our acceptance by God? The depths of mercy contained in this mystery can take our breath away.

“It is perhaps for this reason that we are given glimpses of this radiant white light only in a refracted form.

"We see it in foreshadowings such as the Joseph story, in parables such as the one today, in cryptic phrases such as Christ's predictions of his passion, and in oblique phrases in the rest of the New Testament.

“The story of Joseph is well-known. The firstborn son of Rachel, whom Jacob loved more than Leah; the object of his father's special attention, symbolized by the beautiful tunic he conferred on him—Joseph was hated by his brothers.

“The text today tells us of their treachery. They first threw Joseph into a dry cistern to die in the desert heat, and then they took him out and sold him as a slave to a caravan bound for Egypt.

“There Joseph rose to prominence but was falsely accused, imprisoned, then finally released and installed over the whole land of Egypt.

“During a severe famine Joseph's brothers came to this ruler of Egypt for aid. On their second visit he made as if to imprison his full brother Benjamin, and then he could bear it no longer. As his brothers pleaded for the life of Benjamin, Joseph began to weep.

“He cleared the audience hall, revealed himself to his brothers, and then enunciated the meaning of his rejection: 'God sent me before you to preserve life.'

“Still later, after Jacob's death, his brothers came to him, afraid that now Joseph would take his revenge.

“Once again we hear pronounced the law of our redemption: 'As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.'

"The chief priests and Pharisees know that Jesus' parable is about themselves. Drawing on conditions in Galilee of the time, with rich absentee landowners and sullen tenant farmers, Jesus tells a story about the vineyard, already declared by Isaiah to be Israel.

“The tenant farmers abuse the agents sent to collect the owner's share of the produce, and finally, when the owner sends what must be his only son, they kill him, expecting to be able to take over the vineyard now that the heir is dead.

“How can we describe the mystery of God's willingness to bring life out of the death we cause?

"Only the Holy Spirit can lead us into the unfathomable depths of God's reckless love for us, the Creator of the universe willing to be rejected in order to transform our depravity into a grateful return of love.”


Posted by John at 12:01 AM CST

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