Welcome in, Everybody.  Abrasos for todos.

 

 

Readings:

Genesis 9, 8-15,  Never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood.

Psalm 147,  Your way, Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.

 1 Peter 3, 18-22,  God patiently waited in the days of Noah.

Mark 1, 12-15, The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert.

 

 

 

Hi, Harper.  How many Girl Scout cookies you going to sell us today?  (Lots!)

 

 

Genesis:  observations–

What:  First book of the Bible, starts with creation & ends with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob (Israel).  Any reading from this book should start with Once upon a time.   Why?  Because we have here a literary genre that is like myth or a fairy tale in our language.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for bringing up the bread & grape juice, Joe & Brent & Cheryl.
 

 

 

Author: Not Moses as was thought for centuries before people began to study the work.  At least 3 sources: 

• a Y (or J) source for the group that addressed God as Yahweh;
• an E for the group who addressed God as Elohim (Like two historians calling NYC The Big Apple or New York City, or Denver by its name or Mile High City);
• and a P group that focused on the priestly class, activities, & customs, the Levite tribe.

Time: compiled and put together from 950 to 500 BCE.

Today's Selection: the flood has just receded and Noah is receiving a promise (called covenant) from Yahweh that never again will people be wiped out by a flood.  Guess what the sign of the promise is.

 

 

 

Hey, You People, did not your mommas tell you not to go out on a cold and rainy morning?!

 

 

A Happy Lent

I want to talk this morning about having a happy Lent.  Why?  Because God created us to be happy. 

I admit again that this is my least favorite season of the year.  I always look for something positive to do and am never really satisfied with what I come up with.

 

 

 

 

Getting bored?  Join the kids in the playroom.

 

 

Some years ago Diane McMahon recommended to me a facebook article by a lady named Karen Ehrman.  She says, “For this Lent don’t give something up, take something up.”  She has 4 positive suggestions for taking something up.  I add a 5^th.   I like her suggestions.

 

 

Get your Wednesday ashes at Marlene's comfy house.

 

 

1.       Take up note writing to people with whom you don’t communicate that often, but who are friends.  She says she buys 40 cards, envelopes, and stamps.  Each morning she sends one out to a friend, just saying that she likes the person.

2.       Take up the phone and call someone every day or once a week and tell them you are calling just to tell them thanks for being a good friend.  

 

 

 

People come from the north.

 

3.       Take up a simple gift for a friend or family member.  Like bring flowers to someone, bring a Starbucks, offer to wash the dishes, or clean or dust the house, mow the grass (welcome to Tulip Lane).  Invite someone to lunch.  This is a once a week or occasional take up.

 

 

 

People come from the South. 

 

4.       Take up a simple gift for a stranger.  Like the recycle men, the garbage men, the checkers at the grocery.  Compliment the checker on her finger nails, give $10 to each of the garbage men (watch out for their over the top gratitude). 

5.       Take up visiting someone in retirement or in a hospital.  (This is my addition, not Karen’s)  We got lots of people you may choose from.

 

 

 

Ashes for Debbie & Bobby.

 

 

As you can see, some of these suggestions are occasional or once a week ideas.  Plus, what we have here are only seeds.  Even while you were listening to the five I put forward, you may be been thinking about other possibilities.

How can you have a happy Lent?

Source: Karen Ehman, on line.

 

 

 

 

Ashes for Cindy.  A good Ash Wednesday gathering.

 

 

 

Welcome in out of that 26 degree cold, Dear Emma and Dear Beth.

 

 

Readings:

Leviticus 13, 1-2, 44-46,  If a  man is leprous, the priest shall declare him unclean

Psalm 32,  I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble.

 Corinthians 10, 31-11, Whatever you do, do for the glory of God.

Mark 1, 40-45, A leper came to Jesus

 

 

 

I bet I can guess why Ben & Olivia are not here today.   Like 26 degrees!

 

 

On the readings:

• The book of Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible. Most of Leviticus is written as God’s speeches to Moses on Mt. Sinai which Moses repeated to the Israelites. It’s almost all about rituals and moral practices to follow in order to live in ritual purity. It describes the many ways you can be ‘unclean’; today’s reading is one example. Leviticus describes many rituals and rules to be followed. Like the stories in Genesis and Exodus these rules were created to give the Israelites a special identity, to help hold them together during the Babylon captivity in the sixth century B.C. And it worked.

 

 

Our dearest Candle Lighter of The Week in action.

 

 

• In First Corinthians Paul tells the early Christians in Corinth to not be obsessed about Jewish food laws when eating with others. In this same letter before today’s passage Paul said, “I’m not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say; I’m going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said. If I eat what is served to me, grateful to God for what is on the table, how can I worry about what someone will say?”
• Mark’s Gospel reinforces that caring for another is more important than rituals and rules. I’ll talk more later about how this might relate to how we practice Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday this week.

 

 

Who let these characters in here, Joe (Geri's brother), Geri, and Mike?

 

 

Homily:

 

Mark’s story of Jesus and the leper is a good example of how Mark used stories to highlight the Good News Jesus preached. From Leviticus we know a leper could neither approach nor talk to Jesus. As a leper, he was unclean and would have to stay totally apart from others in out-of-the-way places and speak only to cry out ‘Unclean’. So, already, Mark is telling Jewish followers of Jesus that the old rules no longer apply.

 

 

 

Hi, Leo.  You are looking terrific this morning.

 

 

This Gospel story turned Leviticus on its ear concerning the idea of being ‘unclean’. [Leprosy was incurable then, so their best survival practice was a strict quarantine. Since about 1880 we have known leprosy is caused by a particular bacteria; for over 60 years now it is treatable and curable with antibiotics.] The old rules said: lepers were ‘unclean’ and had to stay out of the way of others, and they were not to touch or be touched. In Mark’s story he has the man with leprosy not stay out of the way away and has him dare to speak out; and he also has Jesus talk to and touch one known to be ‘unclean’. So, in Mark the rules are changed, and Jesus is approachable by anyone.

 

 

 

 

The Best.
 

 

 

In Paul’s letter to Corinthians he turns the rules in Leviticus upside down by questioning the rules about food and the eating habits of Jewish Christians. Paul said they should relax and “eat your meals heartily.”  

So, considering these teaching stories from Leviticus and Mark and Paul, what do you do for Lent to prepare for Easter?

 

 

 

 

Somebody finally gave that man a job.  

 

 

1) Some may give up sweets or do something else healthy. In the 60’s every Lent I would say “I’m giving up watermelon.” (I even used to get a laugh, since back then everyone knew watermelon wasn’t available till summer.)

2) Some will go to south Texas to work with victims of Hurricane Harvey—people struggling to get their houses and lives back in order. You are the community sending those who go; they represent us and this community’s caring for those in need. They will come back to our community members with stories of fun and comradery. They may also have stories about primitive lodging. (Ask Bill what he’s taking ‘just in case’.)

 

 

 

Peace, Angela and Cathy. 

 

 

3) A third possibility is to consider a teaching quoted in Ash Wednesday’s Mass from the prophet Joel 2:13—a favorite Bible verse of Stack’s: “God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in kindness.” Why on Ash Wednesday?     This verse is also found in Psalms 86, 103, and 145; and in the books of Exodus 34:6; and Jonah 4:2; and Nehemiah 9:17.

 

 

 

Bill, updating the plans for a dozen or so of our community heading to Dickenson, TX to join Professor Jim Mahar of St. Bonaventure U. & his 50 or so students, to help with the clean up after the hurricane.  There is still lots to do.

 

 

What if everyone prepared for Easter by imitating that verse?—withholding acts of anger; performing acts of mercy and kindness.   What will you do for Lent?

 

 

 

 

An old geezer taking the Sunday off thanks to John Cade.

 

 

 

"Welcome in, Everybody," says Cody with Olivia and Ben.

 

Readings:

Job 7, 1-4, 6-7,  Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?

Psalm 147,  Praise the Lord who heals the broken hearted.

 Corinthians 9, 16-19. 22-23,   I have become all things to all.

Mark 1, 29-39, They brought to him all who were ill.

 

 

 

And, Welcome in to you, Judy.  So nice to see you.  You look beautiful.

 

 

Job 0bservations:

What: A comment on The Universe.  No book in the OT or NT has less known about it.  Called the most profound book of the OT.    It deals with the problem of evil, personal justification, and why bad things happen to good people.   Job himself could be historical, a literary creation, or a combination of the first two.

Author: Unknown. 

Date: It is guessed to be before the time of Moses and Egypt, i.e., earlier than 1300 before Christ.

Structure: 3 poetic dialogues preceded by a prose introduction and ending with a prose conclusion, an epilogue judged to have been added sometime later by another person or group of persons.

 

 

 

 

Emma, your smile makes my day.  Thanks to you and your little friend.   By the way, your other little friend that you loaned us still rides in our car above the mirror.

 

 

Psalm 147 observations:

 

The message is beautifully optimistic.   Is it naive?   We all die.  What about the Jews who entered Auschwitz?   My JCC friend from Poland?  85 members of his family liquidated.  

 

 

 

 

Want to go to communion?  See Jan, she will fix you up.

 

 

The Story of Job

I would like to tell you this morning the story of Job.

Once upon a time there was a good man named Job who lived in the land of Uz.  He had 7 sons and 3 daughters, a sign that he was especially blessed.  He not only had sons, but he had the special number of 7. 

One day Yahweh was walking around heaven talking with his buddies when he ran into the devil.  "What have you been doing?" he asked.  "I have been walking around here and there," the devil responded. 

"Have you noticed how good my man Job is?"  "Yes,' says the devil, "but I bet he will curse you to your face if you stop protecting him and take away all his goodies."  "It's a bet," says Yahweh, "Just don't hurt him."

 

 

 

 

Leo, our Candle Man of the Week, at work.

 

 

So a few days later while all of Job's 7 sons and 3 daughters where having a feast with their families, a storm blew up killed them all.  A messenger runs to tell Job of the horrible news. 

Another messenger had raced in and saying lightening has just killed all his sheep and the shepherds.   Other messengers likewise run in saying Job's livestock have been rustled by robbers who killed all the farm hands.

Job is devastated, of course, but responds with the famous statement: "I was born with nothing, and I will die with nothing.  The Lord gave, and now he has taken away.  May his name be praised." 

 

 

 

 

Jackie reading the Blessing of the Candles.

 

 

So Yahweh wins his bet.  But, when Yahweh and the devil meet up to settle their bet, the devil raises the stakes by saying that he bets Job will curse Yahweh if the devil is allowed to hurt his body.  Not death, just hurt.  "Bet," says Yahweh.

The next day Job comes down with sores all over his body, like leprosy, and he has to go outside of town where the lepers go.  He sits in the town dump.  His wife now comes and his friends.  They all grieve. They also encourage Job to see what he has done bad.  Has he cursed Yahweh?  Confess and repent.  Job proclaims his innocence.  But he is depressed and discouraged. 

Note the cosmic vision here: God punishes the evil and blesses the good.  So, Job, what bad thing is God punishing?

 

 

 

 

So sorry, Brent, not even a cupcake for you this week.

 

(In East Africa I used to celebrate Mass for a small community of lepers

Finally, while not cursing Yahweh, he cries out his anguish saying (chapter 3): 

"Oh, God, put a curse on the day I was born; put a curse on the night when I was conceived!  Turn that day into darkness, God." (verses  2-4) 

"I wish I had died in my mother's womb or died the moment I was born.  Why did my mother hold me on her knees?" (verses 11-12) 

"Why let men go on living in misery?  Why give light to men in grief?" (verse 20) 

"Everything I fear and dread comes true.  I have no peace, no rest, and my troubles never end." (verses 25-26)

 

 

 

The Offertory Team, Nina & Kerry, Judy & Mike.

 

 

After some time in this situation, Yahweh comes along and speaks with him:

"Who are you to question my wisdom with your ignorant, empty words?  Stand up now like a man and answer the questions I ask you.  Were you there when I made the world?" (verses 2-3)

"Job, have you ever in all you life commanded a day to dawn?" (verse 12)

"Have you been to the springs in the depths of the sea?  Have you walked on the floor of the ocean? "(verse 16)

"Have you been to the place where the sun comes up or the place where the east wind blows?" (verse 24)

 

 

 

Communion Team ready to begin.

 

 

After hearing all the numerous ways Yahweh reminds him of how insignificant he is, Job apologizes to Yahweh and promises to be a good boy and not complain from now on. 

In an epilogue, which is considered a late addition, Yahweh restores his wealth and gives him 7 more sons and 3 more beautiful daughters.  He lives another 140 years a prosperous and happy man.

Ever feel like Job?  How do you handle the feeling?

 

 

 

 

Lynda & Tom getting ready to run Hilton Head next week end and Jan is blessing them on their way.   I am envious.