Wednesday, February 29: Lori Dickerson

Mark 1:35. In the morning,while it was still dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

Jesus always holds our concerns foremost. No problem is too big or too small to share with him. This passage in Mark, beautifully illustrates the compassionate Christ, always reaching out to those that are suffering.

Amidst all of the good works, it is one of the most critical parts of this text. Jesus always balanced his time out in the world, with his deep silent prayer time. This is the most important piece, in my walk with God.....meeting him in silence.

How ever will you know
if you don’t ever go
into the deep rich silence
Is it to be boring
Is it to be bold
Where will all my thoughts go
Can I twiddle my thumbs
Can I cough or squeak
Oh how much more time is there to go
No dry bible passages for me no thanks
With my mind endlessly trying to have its say
I’ll bring the book alive
with my heart inside
God will whisper all it’s secrets
as though it’s written just for me
And when life is joyful, a melody to behold,
we’ll laugh, cry, love and find meaning
in it all
Me and my intimate love
And when life is painful and also deeply sad,
we’ll laugh, cry, love and find meaning
in it all
Me and my intimate love
Don’t settle for a morning service
when a whole new world is ready to
be open at your feet
Enter in my friend
and you shall find what you seek
the most amazing riches
that evolve from week to week
Great love will abound
and is so easy to be found
in the fullness of God’s eye
When heart and mind unite
then incredible peace is yours
this night
simply by drawing a breath
How ever will you know
if you don’t ever go
into the deep rich silence

— Lori Dickerson

Tuesday, February 28: Beth Zobel

Mark 1:14-28. Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

What strikes me with this piece is the message of urgency. Jesus got the message from John’s death and acted swiftly. In response to Jesus’ call, Simon and Andrew left their work---dropped their nets; James and John even left their father in the boat! They knew with deepest conviction. That Knowing resides in each of us -it is part of our God DNA. We don’t have to create it or develop it. We just need to learn how to access that which is always present. How? Through education, guidance, and community support, we can live as Disciples of Christ. Today, in our midst, Jesus is telling us to drop our nets and follow him: The Time is Fulfilled.

— Beth Zobel

Monday, February 27: The Rev. Hollis Williams

Mark 1:1-14. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Jesus spent time in the wilderness, a time of fasting, prayer, and focus on that which was foundational for his life and vocation ahead. The Church, through the rhythm of the Church Year, has set aside a time of reflection prior to the two great feasts of Christmas and Easter. Lent is the reflection time prior to Easter. Fasting is a custom recommended in order for feasting to have a richer personal dimension. The beneficial spiritual tandem between fasting and feasting is captured in verses penned by The Rt. Rev. Arthur Lichtenberger, former Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church:

Fast from self-pity, and feast on joy;
Fast from criticism, and feast on praise;
Fast from ill-temper, and feast on peace;
Fast from resentment, and feast on love;
Fast from pride, and feast on humility;
Fast from selfishness, and feast on service;
Fast from fear, and feast on faith

As a discipline during Lent you might take one of these a week to reflect on during the seven weeks of Lent (for this purpose I would count the partial week in which Ash Wednesday falls); or to live more fully into the fast/feast dynamic......take the first half of each prayer for the seven consecutive weeks and then take the last half for the seven weeks of the Great Fifty Days of Easter. This personal encounter with fasting and feasting can't help but refine the spirit toward wholeness.

— The Rev. Hollis Williams

Invitation from the Rector

Lent: Reading the Bible Together

We often take on a Lenten practice that involves a book study of some kind. Here’s a suggestion for this Lent. Let’s read the Bible together. Beginning with Genesis. I’m inviting the entire St Thomas community to read the Book of Genesis along with me during this Lenten season and to come to the Adult Forum each Sunday (except March 4 when I will be with the Vestry at St Andrew’s House and Project Outreach will present at the Forum) where we will discuss what we are finding on our journey through this beautiful and foundational text. There are 50 chapters in Genesis ranging from the two Creation stories (yes, there are two) to the Fall to Noah to the stories of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs all the way to Joseph and the people’s arrival in Egypt. Read 10 chapters a week. Even if you can’t make the Forum, you can listen to the podcast. If you can’t listen to the podcast, you can know that your parish family is reading and discussing right along with you.

We will read Genesis and one other book together this Spring and then in September we will launch the Bible Challenge. Begun at St Thomas Episcopal Church Whitemarsh in suburban Philadelphia two years ago, the Bible Challenge has now spread around the world. http://thecenterforbiblicalstudies.org/bible-challenge-invitation/

Why read the Bible? This wonderful collection of narrative and poetry and letters and law has been given to us by God for the sake of wonder. It has been given to us, not as a source of information, but for our transformation. The Bible is not primarily a set of ideas. It is certainly not a rule book. It is an invitation into a new set of experiences, and invitation for us as readers and listeners to take on a new set of eyes and ears. If we approach the Bible with an open mind an open heart, with humility and with “poverty of spirit” as Jesus says in the Beatitudes, if we read and listen with the innocence of a child, the biblical revelation has the power to transform us, our families, and our community of faith. And reading the Bible in this way, letting the Bible speak to us rather than looking to the Bible to confirm our already existing assumptions, has the power to transform our image of God. Walter Breuggemann, the great Old Testament scholar, has observed that the God the people of Israel--- and Jesus—knew is consistently understood to be merciful, gracious, faithful, forgiving, and steadfast in love. But that will not always be self-evident. Like everything else in real life, God’s revelation in the Bible is often one step forward, two back, and three sideways. As we move through the biblical story together, though, we will find that our capacity to be with God will deepen and increase. We will see the patterns of God’s work unfold. We will see how God is so often manifest in the ordinary, the everyday, the actual. One meaning of the Incarnation is that the divine and the material, the ordinary are one. We just couldn’t see that until God put them together in a body, namely, Jesus!

So please join your parish family on this wonderful adventure reading the Bible together. It’s our story, after all. If you need a Bible, let me know, and you will have one! Be ready to be transformed.

Faithfully,

Lex

Sunday, February 26: Tonya Farr

Mark 1:15. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.

What a way to begin a story!

Jesus is baptized. The trinity is all together in just two short verses. We hear directly from God that he is “well pleased” with Jesus. And the first words we hear from Jesus in Mark’s gospel are breathtaking. It wakes me up, opens my heart, and prepares me for the rest of the story; the “good news”.

— Tonya Farr

Saturday, February 25: Christopher Breunig

John 17:20-26. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

This scripture contains words that are deeply moving to me in ways that I do not fully understand. At one level, Jesus is asking for some sort of metaphysical union of Jesus, God the Father, the disciples, and all believers now and evermore. Jesus is addressing his Father shortly before his arrest. At this moment of imminent arrest and violence, Jesus does not pray for protection for himself or relief from pain. In this excerpt, Jesus prays for unity for all who are to come, unity created in the knowledge of Jesus’ divinity and that the Father sent him. He is praying that the disciples and, ultimately, we understand the meaning of his presence, his ministry, and his Father’s love for the world. It is far from certain that the disciples or we will understand Jesus’ example and Jesus’ prayer is a prayer asking for this unity as his desire.
I think one reason I find this passage comforting is that it fits my world view that I hope has been shaped by Jesus’ ministry. The world does not make sense to me as a lot of separate individuals. While time for rest and being apart are wonderful, disunity and disconnectedness feel bad. We are all connected through God’s love with each other—period. Of course, my brain usually can only understand the world in groups family, friends, strangers, parishes, schools, teams, nations, etc. May we all join in this prayer for unity through love.

— Christopher Breunig

Friday, February 24: Harriett Gill

You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. John 15:16

Without the vine (Jesus) I cannot live. Attached to the vine I not only live, but I can bear fruit. That fruit will not only sustain me, but will somehow refresh and sustain others. It is difficult, indeed painful, to think this analogy through. None of us wish to see others thrown into the fire. When I am abiding in Jesus I will not ask for frivolous things, but for the strength to keep going. For ways to communicate the love and joy of abiding in the Lord to others…that would seem to be the bearing of fruit. This does not mean that life will be easy. Jesus says "as the Father has loved me, so I will love you." Jesus, loved by the Father, hung on a cross and died a dreadful, painful death. He rose again on the third day. God did not leave him and He does not leave us when we sometimes live through pain, rejection and the difficulties of life.

The branches on the vine bear fruit and wonderful, life giving wine is produced. Thanks be to God!

— Harriett Gill

Thursday, February 23: Shirley E. Deffenbaugh

John 17:4,6: I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.…I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.

In John 17, we find Jesus’ final prayer before his crucifixion, offered up as the last supper ends (John includes no prayer in Gethsemane). It is sometimes called his “high priestly prayer” because commentators see parallels between it and the prayers of the high priests who offered animal sacrifices to Yahweh. But that’s not what I see. I see a prayer from the heart rather than a ritualistic act.

First, Jesus acknowledges who he is – the Son of the Father – and calls himself “Jesus Christ,” recognizing his earthly (incarnated) and divine (transformed) Self. He does not focus on himself as a sacrifice, however, but prays for his disciples and for the world. His is a beautiful intercessory prayer in which he summarizes his earthly role and its import. Verses 4 and 6 are instructive: “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. . . . I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.”

These verses and Jesus’ opening words suggest what it means to live in the dynamic of the “Christlife.”

First, I must recognize and acknowledge that I am God’s child; He has given me the gift of life in Him through His Son and the Holy Spirit; my gift to Him is to become the person He created me to be and to glorify Him through my presence in this world. Then, I must answer two questions:

What is the work I’ve been given to do?

Whom have I been given from the world to love and to serve?

Living out the answers to these questions (my incarnation) is my fulfillment in God (my transformation). It’s the message for each of us.

As Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest, writes:

Whatever happens to Jesus is what must and will happen to the soul: incarnation, an embodied life of ordinariness and hiddenness, initiation, trial, faith, death, surrender, resurrection and return to God. Such is the Christ pattern that we all share in, either joyfully and trustfully (heaven), or unwillingly and resentfully (hell). (Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, [St. Anthony Messenger Press: Cincinnati, OH], 2008, p. 198).

— Shirley E. Deffenbaugh