The Weight of Glory and Today.
You know the moment. The night has been slowly yielding to the dawn. Then you see the edge of that fiery orange ball break the horizon. And it mesmerizes every time - but only for a few minutes. Once the sun rises in the sky, the day beckons, and on we go. Or, maybe you prefer the sun setting, watching it slip away to give us the night. But you know the moment.
C.S. Lewis says such moments give us glimpses of heaven, not in the sensual beauty of the moment but in the tug that beauty gives to our soul. That sunrise or sunset carries us farther than mere beauty. It could be nature, music, art, a space launch, a fine meal or sip of wine, or a heart-to-heart conversation that opens that vision. It awakens a longing we can scarcely identify before it slips away. In the same way a hungry person, whether or not they ever get fed again, needs food, so this longing reminds that we are made for something more but that is beyond our reach.
Read More
Rigid Religiosity
Are people spying on you? Is the government? If so, is it legal? Laura and I like to watch FBI night on Tuesday evenings. Our favorites are FBI and FBI International. It’s always quite intriguing how quickly with just a tiny bit of information they are able to find people. Traffic cameras, sidewalk cameras, social media accounts, or by pinging a cell phone, which then opens the door to a floodgate of information! The pieces come together, and they find the person that they are looking for, amazingly, anywhere in the world!
I recently read an article in POLITICO, entitled “The Government Really is Spying on You – and It’s Legal.” The government has data that has been collected through legal channels and digital means: mobile phones, computers, social media, banking, and more ways than we can imagine. As I have told my children, grandchildren, and many others, “Be careful what you post on the internet, it will remain there forever, and it very well may resurface again.” Before we all get too paranoid, it probably doesn’t make a whole lot of difference whether they have it in some digital file or not. For most of us, it doesn’t matter, unless we aspire to run for a political office, where some dirt from our forgotten past will make media attention! Nonetheless, information is being gathered!
Read More
Father, Son, & Holy Spirit
We’ll start this morning with a pop quiz. This is one I like to give and which I have given before at various times here. There are few words that feel more warm and cuddly than “dogma.” It means core principles or ideas. Our church has just two dogmas. What are they? They are the Trinity, and that Jesus is fully human and fully divine. Those are actually very warm and even cuddly when we think of the ways we are invited and encouraged to build our relationship with the Lord.
The dogma of the Trinity was adopted at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD because the Church was and is resolutely monotheistic, and needed to reconcile that with the Apostles’ bore witness to Jesus as “One with the Father” and had the distinct experience of the Holy Spirit.
Read More
