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 29, 2006

Isaiah 49:8-15

John 5:17-30

Francis Martin has written that, “Yesterday Ezekiel gave us a prophecy of a new and restored Israel in symbols that were ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. Today Isaiah does the same.

“The word of God through Isaiah promises a day of salvation, a time when prisoners will come forth, when a way will be cut through the mountains, and when the highway back from exile will be a level, easy road.

“However, the gospel text today begins to sound an ominous note. It tells of the conflict stirred up by the healing miracle recorded in yesterday's reading.

“There we saw Jesus at the pool of Bethesda, a healing place with its five porticoes crowded with sick people of every description. One can still see this pool near the Church of St. Anne in Jerusalem.

“Jesus came to this desperate scene where humanity, not knowing to whom it should turn, was waiting for the waters to stir.

“Salvation came, not by some chance stirring of the forces of this world but by the healing word of Jesus.

“The man, now healed and jubilant, was confronted by 'the Jews,' who demanded to know what kind of person would ever tell a man to carry his pallet on the Sabbath. Thus began the conflict that continues today.

“It is important to note that when John uses the phrase 'the Jews,' while he might be reflecting the actual historical actors in the life of Jesus, his is not a polemic against the people of the day.

“He is using the phrase as a symbolic way of designating all those who resist the truth, whether they are Jew of Gentile.

“Jesus answer to the Jews' accusation is a statement of his identity. The Jews understood the significance of this response.

"Jesus responds in a way that leads us into the heart of the mystery of the death and resurrection of the Son of God, for his earthly life realizes in a human dimension the selfless intimacy that he and God eternally enjoy in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

“We now see that Jesus' human obedience is the reflection of his eternal relation to God, with whom he is completely equal and to whom he looks in love for everything. This is the secret of the power of his death.

“As he was on his way to Gethsemane, the prelude to his passion, he told his disciples that what he was going to face would not be a triumph of the Prince of this world but an expression of his love for and obedience to God. This is the norm and source of our obedience.

Robert Waldrop has written,

“God has called us to build a culture of life, a civilization based on love, by rejecting the works of darkness and bondage to materialism/consumerism which sustain the culture of death.

“This comes through our conversion in Christ Jesus and our perseverance in the works of mercy, justice, and peace. May God give us the strength, courage, and faith we need for this journey!”


Posted by John at 12:01 AM CST
Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12

John 5:1-16

Robert Waldrop writes,

“Jesus is in trouble again. He healed a man on the Sabbath, a day of rest. The man had been paralyzed for 38 years. He was at a traditional place where sick people came to be healed, but he had no one to place him in the waters.

“Ezekiel gives us a vision of healing waters, flowing from the Temple, restoring fertility to the deserts, symbolizing a return to the primeval paradise, looking forward to the Reign of God here on Earth.

“Once again Jesus shows his concern for the marginalized, in this case, a man who was paralyzed. Such people had no status in Roman or Israelite society, they were at the mercy of others.

“Jesus does not shrink from the sight before him, he does not have on his Invisibility Spectacles that allow him to ignore the poor and weak. He not only notices the man, but He helps him by bringing him healing and health.

“The rulers are furious, which historically is the typical political reaction to anybody who works to bring justice and peace (structures of sin always vigorously defend themselves against those who would bring them redemption).

“Once again that wretched rabbi has defied convention and done something unprecedented. Healing on the Sabbath indeed, who does this man think he is? Who indeed; that is the question, then and now.

“We can ask, who do these rulers think they are to stand in opposition to those who would help the poor?”

Francis Martin writes that,

“Water is once again the symbolic theme of today's readings—water flowing from Christ's side and the water of baptism. Both of these water images are expressions of the fruit of Jesus' death and resurrection.

“The first reading is taken from one of the highlights of a long, nine-chapter description given by Ezekiel of what the land of Israel, and especially the temple, will be like when God restores his people. Typical of such prophetic visions is a certain mixing of horizons.

“Ezekiel is speaking, immediately after the return of Israel from exile, about the promise of a restored temple; but he also describes in symbol what God will do when he makes good on all the promises he ever made to Israel.

“The prophet saw water flowing from the side of the new temple. It formed a stream that became progressively deeper until it was a mighty river flowing out into the desert and filling the Dead Sea.

“Then Ezekiel saw many trees along the banks of the river, and from the angel who accompanied him he heard of the life-giving power of this water.

“Jesus is the new temple, and from his side flow rivers of living water.

“If we believe, we thirst; if we come to Jesus in faith, we will drink of the life-giving water, the Spirit, who flows from within him.”


Posted by John at 12:01 AM CST
Monday, March 27, 2006

Isaiah 65:17-21

John 4:43-54

Francis Martin writes that

“Many of our Lenten texts have been instructions that enable us to live our share in Christ's life more deeply. Some have revealed to us aspects of the Paschal Mystery, the death and resurrection of Christ, and a few have invited us into the sanctuary of his own inner life.

“From this point until Easter all the gospel texts will be from the Gospel of John, and they will serve to bring us more deeply into the mystery of Jesus' death and glorification.

“Today's texts begin this period with a prophecy that points to the meaning of Jesus' act of love on the cross and the fruit that this act will bear for us and for all of humanity.

“Isaiah, or more likely someone in the 'school' of Isaiah writing some two hundred years later, delivers a word of promise from God. The message creates for us a symbolic understanding of what will be when God creates a 'new heaven and a new earth.'

“This prophecy is being fulfilled in Christ's creative work, the Church.

“The work was completed on the cross and in the Resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit, but the full manifestation of that work awaits the moment when the new creation extends to the heavens and the earth and the new Jerusalem.

“John's gospel shows us the life of Jesus fulfilling prophesy and being a prophesy of the life of the Church—that is, our life—until he returns. Today's account of Jesus' healing of the royal official's son is an example of this.

“Let us pay attention to the details of John's narrative and try to enter into what effect this action of Jesus, mediated to us by John's theological artistry, is meant to have in our lives.

“First, Jesus is at Cana, 'where he had made the water wine'--that is, where the splendid water of the old dispensation became the wine of the life of the Holy Spirit.

"John takes pains to point out to us that the healing of the official's son is 'now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.' The first sign was for the Jews, the second for the Gentiles.

“Then again, this is a healing at a distance, as are the other gospel miracles that have to do explicitly with non-Jews: those of the centurion's son and the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman.

“When we reflect upon the meaning of these actions we can see, first, that Jesus, by this and other healings, has initiated the era prophesied by Isaiah. Second, we see that distance is no obstacle to him now.

“In this time of the Church, Jesus still heals and forgives 'at a distance.' That is, he may be absent in one way, but he is present in another.

“We should go to him as did the royal official, the centurion, and the foreign woman, and ask not only for ourselves but also for those who need to know his power experientially.

"The result of the healing narrated in today's gospel was that the royal official 'believed, and all his household.' Our answered prayers can have the same result.”


Posted by John at 12:01 AM CST
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

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