Lectionary based "Weekly Word"
(updated each Tuesday)
= check out Bill's Books at www.notperfectyet.com =
NonFiction: "Help! My Church is Leaving Me" - a UMC study guide for today.
Bill Kemp's Historical Fiction Series set in First Century Palestine: Bethany's People
available in print or e-book format from Amazon
Book 1 "Mary Sees All" - a unique perspective on the events leading to Good Friday
Book 2 "Martha Finds Rest" the Easter Story from Martha's point of view.
Coming Soon:
Bethany's People Book 3 "Eliezer Risks it All" - Mid-2022
Bethany's People Book 4 "Lazarus Dies First" - Late-2022
If we ignore the little nudges of the Holy Spirit, we risk losing our awareness of God's mission. What does he want us to do today? Our agenda or His? In a few weeks it will be Pentecost. One of the things we rarely talk about is the most common experience of the Holy Spirit. Not fire and wind, but little tugs on our heart.
Each of us have been blessed by people who day after day did "good works and acts of charity." Shall I name Margaret? Shall I name Suzy Q? These people live on in our memories. They also live, which is the point of the story of Dorcas, because of the power of Christ's resurrection over death.
“A church is like a green house. Different plants growing under the same roof. If you go into ministry, you’ll have to learn how to give each plant what it needs.” What my mentor in ministry, Dick Arnold, said to me.
This is the nature of systemic injustice. Everyone knows, but they each accept their given role in the shared lie.
We receive on Easter morning the blessing that Jesus spoke to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen, but believe.” Reflect upon all that you see. Come to faith...
Palm and Passion Sunday are not in opposition. They are two acts in the same drama. The story of Palm Sunday provides two of the five reasons for Jesus going to the cross.
This Psalm talks about planting seeds. Sowing with the expectation that God bringing about the harvest. Verse 5 says that sometimes you sow those seeds with tears in your eyes.
Young people grow into an ever-widening circle of people for whom they must show love and compassion. First it is their siblings and parents, then their playmates, then the people at school, especially those who are being bullied or ostracized. As we enter into adulthood, our calling to compassion must extend to those who are poor, or subject to abuse.
In Luke 13, Jesus is blunt. We must accept the total unavoidability of life’s traumas. Whether you are a good person, who never misses church, or a bad person, who sneers at God, a school shooter may terrorize your kids, or bully like Puttin invade your country.
We have each learned our own techniques for putting a veil over our face and diminishing the good that should come from our mountain top spiritual experiences. Are you ready for an inflection point in your spiritual adventure?
This is how Christianity is defined. Not by theology, but by compassion. This is how Jesus is honored, not by merely holding clerical office, but by following.
Jesus saw hidden potential in the people he invited to follow him. Sometimes so well hidden that even those he called didn't see it. There was something beneath the surface of Peter, James, and John. There is also something hidden in each of us that Jesus knows how to use.
Jeremiah was called to preach a message that would change nations. In Jesus’ first sermon, he reversed the “our nation first” rhetoric of his day’s leaders by reminding the faithful that Elijah did his greatest miracle on the wrong side of the border, and that Elisha is known for bringing healing to the enemy of Israel. What does God want from our political leaders? Justice, mercy, the fair treatment of prisoners, and a hand up (or hope) for those in poverty.
We both envy and hate the people who leave town and make it big. Bob Dylan hasn’t been back to Hibbing, Minnesota other than for his tenth high school reunion, where he got into a fight at the local Moose lodge.
Mary wants there to be wine. Jesus is at the beginning of a ministry that will lead him to the cross. He will, at the end of that painful road, bring to us the new wine of eternal life and the Holy Spirit.
People gathered each day to be baptized by John for the repentance of their sins and to prepare them for the Kingdom of God. And in this crowd of people just like us, Luke gives us Jesus.
The only way to credit your spiritual account is to show compassion to strangers, that is, the people who are unable to pay you back. You tally up losses every time you ignore an opportunity to do good in this world.
This Christmas learn to rejoice, not because things are going well, but because Jesus is near. He promises to be near as we face difficulty. He is also near in terms of his coming kingdom.
How is Jesus like a refiner's fire or the fuller's wash-tub? In my own life Jesus appears as the refiner's fire when my problems and misdeeds have become too great for me to ignore. It is like what they say at AA, "I've come to believe that it will take a power greater than myself to restore me to sanity." That's when Malachi's Jesus becomes good news.
The voice in the wilderness did not ask people to put their faith in him, nor did he expect them to double down. He called them to repent before God, and then return to their lives with the hope of being better people. Religion ought to be about seeking God, seeking to know ourselves, and seeking to be more compassionate.
