Psalm 37 & Luke 6: 27-38

Jesus set a very high bar in the sermon on the plain and we are not Eliza McCartney pole-vaulter look alikes. So I’m with Karoline Lewis when she says, “Jesus’ principles are a leveling list. “We’d like to think we can do all of these things,” she says but, the truth is, we can’t. It is a leveling list. It puts us all on the same plain. When we truly listen to Luke Chapter 6 – the sermon on the flatland – we are humbled. There we are on the level plain – not up on the mountain top – but on the level in the full gamut of life, modeling the kingdom of God in very mediocre ways. At least we’re out there saying it’s important – well hopefully we are. Hopefully we are voicing these ideas and implementing them as and when we can no matter how inadequately. Hopefully we are doing the best we can. Remember the quote from Sloane Coffin, commenting on Psalm 37 , “hope criticizes what is, hopelessness rationalizes it. Hope resists, hopelessness adapts.” It’s rationalization and adaptation that humans are so prone to that consistently undermines the ‘sermon on the flatland’. Continue reading Wisdom’s Gold →

Psalm 1 & Luke 6: 17-26

 I had a quick trip south at the end of the week.  On the way I crossed the Beaumont Bridge over the Clutha River, on the highway from Lawrence to Roxburgh. It is an ancient, rickety, one way bridge with stop go lights at each end. When I end up waiting at the red light I have time to sit and contemplate what seems to me the very real possibility that the bridge will collapse just when I’m on it and I will be swept down the Clutha. I always feel like I want to get across it as fast as possible but of course because of its state one has to drive carefully and slowly. Continue reading Blessings in the Flatlands →

Isaiah 6: 1-13 & Luke 5: 1-11

What does a high lofty throne, a figure so elevated that we just see the hem of the robe filling the space we’re in and seraphs in attendance have to do with a boat of fishermen casting the nets into deep water and coming up to the surface brimming with life? Continue reading The Catch in the Call →

Jeremiah 1: 4-10 & Luke 4: 21-30

So often when we read or listen to scripture it floats over our head either because it is so familiar or because we don’t actually expect to hear anything of interest and yet if we pay close attention there are things that might make us sit up a bit straighter. Continue reading Love to Tell; The Words of my Mouth →