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.


Saturday, March 25, 2006

Hosea 6:1-6

Luke 18:9-14

Francis Martin writes that

“God tells us through the prophet Hosea that he wants love, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than holocausts. In the gospel Jesus tells us the parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector who both went to the temple to pray.

“If we penetrate the meaning of the two words 'love' and 'knowledge,' we will enter into the heart of what Jesus is teaching us.

“The Hebrew word from which we translate 'love' in the passage from Hosea is one that many have heard about before: hesed. The word hesed describes an attitude, expressed in action, of an enthusiastic fidelity to a relationship.

“When God is described as 'doing hesed,' the accent is often on the undeserved generosity with which he acts in fidelity to his promises and covenant. In this way, hesed may be translated as 'mercy.'

"When human beings show hesed they are responding to the demands of a relationship born of family, friendship, or covenant, and they do this generously and without hesitation.

“Perhaps Jesus' words in St. Matthew's Gospel, in the seventh verse of the fifth chapter, show us the link between God's hesed and our hesed: 'Blessed are the merciful, for mercy will be given to them [by God].'

“To 'know God' is to recognize both him and his authority. To recognize God means being able to perceive his presence and come to know him intimately and affectionately.

“But this is not possible unless I also recognize—that is, acknowledge in my actions—his majesty and authority.

“The intimate link between knowing God and obeying him is stated more than once in the First Letter of John. We read in the fourth verse of the second chapter, 'The one who claims, “I know him,” while not keeping his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.'

'Knowing God,' therefore, signifies an intimate perception of him and a heartfelt and practical acknowledgment of his authority: these two cannot be separated.

“Now let us apply these insights to the two men who 'went up to the temple to pray.' Luke tells us that Jesus directed the parable to those who 'were self-confident, regarding themselves as upright and all others as contemptible.'

The Pharisee was observant, but he lacked love, he lacked hesed. His obedience was not out of gratitude. Rather he presented it to God as achievement, something that guaranteed his acceptance, his justification, with God. The Pharisee also lacked knowledge of God.

"There was no intimacy in his prayer, no sense of responding to God's authority. Rather, his was a sense of self-congratulation.

“The tax collector, on the other hand, out of his clear awareness of his need and of his true reality before God, never even looked up but only prayed for mercy, for hesed.

"Despite his sinful situation and his social ostracism, he knew that God would care for him and he had enough love to address himself to that. He had knowledge of God. Somehow he both perceived God's true character and wanted to submit himself to his authority. He went home justified.”


Posted by John at 12:01 AM CST
Friday, March 24, 2006

Hosea 14:2-10

Mark 12:28-34

Robert Waldrop has written,

“Today's message is simple: Turn away from idolatry and worship the one true God. Hosea calls us to put our trust in God, not in the work of human hands, not in the military might of the superpowers of the era, but rather in the God who gives compassion to the fatherless.

“As we do this, our 'defection' is healed, wrath is turned away, the desert blossoms and becomes fruitful. Jesus teaches us that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

“We can't be in love with God if we aren't in love with our neighbor -- the second greatest commandment is solidarity.

“We do well to ask ourselves -- where is the solidarity in our communities today? Do we see the poor, the foreigner, the marginalized as our neighbor and thus love them as we love our own lives?

"If so, why do we snatch the food stamps from their hands and give them over to the rich, shifting federal spending from means-tested poverty programs to corporate welfare and pork-barrel appropriations?

“Oh, feeding the hungry creates more hunger, we read, but that's not what Jesus said, that's the message of politicians and editorial writers. Americans don't feel much solidarity with the people of other nations whose children are dying.

“Where is our solidarity with the poor and desperate workers making pennies an hour under unsafe conditions working for transnational corporations making toys for us to give our kids?

“These are not comfortable thoughts, but Jesus is the one who says we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves. He explains what we needed to know -- clearly and without ambiguity. When we understand this, like the scribe who questioned Jesus, we are not far from the Reign of God.”

Francis Martin has written that

“Purity of heart consists of loving God above all else. Israel learned this from God himself and recited it three times every day in the famous Shema.

“In the first reading today, from the prophet Hosea, God himself is calling upon his people to abandon their fruitless search for an easy security in the work of their hands, which are the gods they make for themselves. He is calling them to be faithful to the Shema.

“Jesus has taught us the revolutionary truth that we must love God and each other with the same love, and that we cannot separate these one from the other.

“Our love for God is a return of love. It consists in allowing the love God has for us to take its place in our hearts and become a return of love to him.

“St. Catherine of Siena once heard God tell her, 'I have placed you in the midst of your brothers and sisters so that you can do for them what you cannot do for me. That is, you can love them freely without expecting any return.'”


Posted by John at 12:01 AM CST
Thursday, March 23, 2006

Jeremiah 7:23-28

Luke 11:14-23

Robert Waldrop has written,

“Beware of giving voice to those who cannot speak. People will say you are filled with the devil and up to no good. They will try to distract attention from the good fruits of your works by casting aspersions on your motivations and backers.

“Has this not happened over and over again throughout human history? Give power to those who are rejected, and those who benefit from exploitation will fabricate lies and slanders against you.

“The Lord recaps to Jeremiah the tragic history of his people. Again and again prophets have been sent to preach justice and repentance and again and again the people have turned their backs on the Lord.

“'Faithfulness has disappeared,' in the Newspeak of the Israelite elite, it was not even in the dictionary. God's concern in the prophetic writings is evident in the extensive prophetic denunciations of the exploitation of the weak by the strong.

“In response to the slanders of those who profited from corruption, Jesus preaches that all who are not with him are against him, if we are not gathering with him, we are scattering.

“By giving voice to those who cannot speak, Jesus shows his credentials as the agent of the Reign of God which has come upon them, when they were least expecting it.”

Francis Martin writes,

“Just as obedience and trust bring about an enlargement of our heart and a deeper freedom, so disobedience and lack of trust bring about hardness of heart and slavery.

“The great truths of reality, as in their own way scientists can tell us, are not discovered by carefully controlled experiments but by a leap of the spirit, an intuition, a yielding to what is greater than we are. In fact, it is a law that the greater the truth, the more of the human person is involved in its knowing.

“Suppose...I tell you that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who by his human death and resurrection has reconciled the whole human race to God, and as a result, eternal life is being offered to you.

“You stand there before this truth, but it will take all of you to yield to the interior witness of the Holy Spirit to come to know and experience this reality. This is God's invitation at every moment.

Thomas H. Troeger has written this poem:

“A spendthrift lover is the Lord Who never counts the cost Or asks if heaven can afford To woo a world that's lost. Our lover tosses coins of gold Across the midnight skies And stokes the sun against the cold To warm us when we rise.

“Still more is spent in blood and tears To win the human heart, To overcome the violent fears That drive the world apart. Behold the bruised and thorn-crowned face Of one who bears our scars And empties out the wealth of grace That's hinted by the stars.

“How shall we love this heart-strong God Who gives us ev'rything, Whose ways to us are strange and odd, What can we give or bring? Acceptance of the matchless gift Is gift enough to give. The very act will shake and shift The way we love and live.”


Posted by John at 12:01 AM CST
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

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