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Spirit-Filled Journey Through Psalms
#PictureLent is an activity that invites any and all into praying through words and images. Take a look at the reflection for today. https://mailchi.mp/riotexas/picturelentfebruary18 Also, follow along with this 40-day Lenten Anti-Bias/Anti-Racism calendar. https://calendar.myadvent.net/?id=799f18607808e08e5ebfb99ffbc478ba -- Peace, Dean
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Daily Lectionary Readings for Year B
Today is Ash Wednesday. We enter the wilderness time with Jesus. Time will work on us, forty days to whittle away our patient defenses. We will grow tired. We will become weak. And then, as sure as the sun rises, the temptations will come. Who knows what forms these temptations will take? But in their subtle, tantalizing ways, they will seek to make a bargain with us. Give up the ways of love and compassion for your neighbor, and I will fill your bank account with so much wealth you will never have to worry again. Confronting racism is a waste of time. Ignore it and it will go away. Quit the church and walk away from God, and I will give you power on earth. I imagine these and other temptations are with us before and after Lent, but it is during these forty days that we prayerfully confront them and seek to deny their power over us. It won't be easy. Forty days of prayer, confession, fasting, and almsgiving is not easy. But then, on Easter, tired and yet strengthened, we will walk with the risen Christ to serve the world in love. Today might be a good day to call someone and decide together to support one another through Lent. Agree to hold each other accountable. Trust one another to share the ways you are experiencing temptation. Support and celebrate the hard work you are both doing. Then promise to rejoice together on Easter morning. -- Peace, Dean Daily Lectionary Readings for Year B What a snowy morning! Beautiful! Cold (8 degrees, feels like -6)! A fine morning to wrap up with a hot cup of coffee, read the lessons for the day, pray for those who are on your heart, and sing. After suffering torment, abuse, and destruction, Job's faith remains. "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;" May all of us who are suffering and seeking newness of life remember today God's love and faithfulness. Singing such a song as "It Is Well with My Soul" might be our prayer this snow-filled day. https://youtu.be/rhaTIu_k4w0 -- Peace, Dean Daily Lectionary Readings for Year B Exodus 19:7-25 Awe. Reverence. Holy Anticipation. God is approaching. God is near. Consecrate the people. Purify them through water and ritual. Set a boundary for them so that they are safe. God is coming but the people will not be able to see, only feel, God's presence. They will feel it in the trembling earth and in the rumbling thunder. They will watch Moses enter into the cloud and feel a sense of wonder and fear, hope and excitement, knowing that Moses is the one who is receiving for the many. Have you ever felt God's presence? This past Saturday we gathered in the Family Life Center, just a few of us, to celebrate the life of Verlo Tillottson. Verlo is Kathy Carruthers' Pa. He died suddenly, unexpectedly, while clearing the snow from his driveway. We were wearing masks and taking precautions. And it felt God was present. God was there in the prayers and in the sharing. God was there as we walked to the Family Life Center and watched in silence as the Military Honor Guard folded and presented the flag to Ruth. God was there in the sound of the bugle playing Taps. And God was in the beautiful Memorial Garden where we placed Verlo's ashes in the Columbarium. The snow was falling gently. And there was a softness, a gentle love, a holiness to that moment that I will never forget. We didn't see God face to face, but God was there. And we received a peace that passes all understanding. Verlo's ashes were the first to be placed in the Columbarium. Glen Haight and Chuck Dear prepared the space. They shoveled the walkway and worked with the funeral home so that the urn was exactly what was needed. They helped Kathy's family feel the assurance of the promise of Christ. All I can say is that the experience on Saturday, and the interment of ashes, was a high and holy moment. If you have been wondering about whether the Memorial Garden would feel sacred and could be a place of everlasting peace, I felt it to be. I will attach the information about the Memorial Garden, in case you have been thinking of that for your funeral plan options. I am thankful that God's dream came to be, of that thin place where God is so near. This might be a good day to call someone and talk about times you felt God was near. -- Peace, Dean 
Daily Lectionary Readings for Year B
2 Kings 4:8-17 What a story. The prophet Elisha happens to accept a dinner invitation, and returns to the home of the Shunammite woman and her husband every time he passes through town. She decides to build for him a room so that he can also stay and rest there when he travels. For her hospitality, Elisha announces she will have a child. The child grows, gets sick, dies, and is brought back to life. All of this is predicated by a dinner invitation extended and accepted. But there is so much more happening. The Shunammite woman is central to this story. I find it helpful to gain the perspective from a women's commentary to help me understand things that I otherwise might miss. Take a look at this insight from the Jewish Women's Archive. https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/shunammite-bible Shunammite: Bible by Claudia V. Camp The “great woman of Shunem” appears twice in the narratives about the ninth-century b.c.e. prophet Elisha. Her title suggests wealth, but also, as the story unfolds, independence of mind and faith. She recognizes Elisha as a man of God, offering him meals and building and furnishing a roof-chamber for his convenience (a decision announced to her husband, not submitted for his approval!). In response, the prophet offers her a boon, proposing to use his influence with the king or army commander. Although this offer foreshadows later events, here she proudly refuses such help, expressing confidence in her own people. Following up on his servant Gehazi’s observation of the woman’s childlessness, Elisha then announces she will bear a son. Again (and surprisingly, given the conventions of such announcement stories) she resists: “No, my lord, O man of God; do not deceive your servant” (2 Kgs 4:16). The child is born and grows into a youth. One day, while helping his father in the fields, he falls sick He is sent to his mother, the parent charged with health care and, in this case, with deciding what to do when the child dies. Brushing off her husband’s questions about her actions, the woman orders him to fetch her a servant and a donkey so that she might ride to Elisha at Mount Carmel. Notably unaware of what troubles her, Elisha sends Gehazi to question her. The woman, however, refuses to deal with an intermediary: she neither responds to Gehazi’s queries nor accepts Elisha’s wish to send his servant in his place. He accedes to her demand, returns with her, and restores the child to life. The Shunammite woman appears again in 2 Kgs 8:1–6. Having accepted Elisha’s suggestion that she move her household away from Israel during a seven-year famine, she returns to appeal to the king for return of her house and her land. It so happens that she and her son appear at court just at the moment that Gehazi is regaling the king with the story of Elisha’s resurrection of the boy. Apparently impressed with this sight of a miracle in the flesh, the king restores the woman’s possessions. Prophet legends such as these (compare 1 Kgs 17:8–24; 2 Kgs 4:1–7) usually serve to impress the reader or listener with the prophet’s power. The characterization of the great woman of Shunem both supports and subverts this purpose. In some respects she is stereotypically subordinated to Elisha: he is named, whereas she is not; he rarely speaks directly to her, even when she is present; he decides that she should have a child, when she has expressed no such desire; she speechlessly bows in the face of his resurrecting power. On the other hand, she is presented as the decision-making head of her household and as the initiating and unintimidated actor in her relationship with the prophet—indeed, one who reveals the limits of Elisha’s own communication with God. ---- Today might be a good day to call someone and talk about a strong, independent, loving woman you have known, or the wonders of hospitality, or life that comes from death. Be kind to all you meet. -- Peace, Dean Daily Lectionary Readings for Year B Proverbs are short, wise, thoughtful sayings. The proverbs are lived experiences passed down so that others might understand how to live a peaceful life. This morning's reading from Proverbs has some helpful words of advice:
Are you getting your recording ready to send in for our Variety Show? Our online Variety Show will be Tuesday, February 16 at 7 pm. Send me your video by February 14, a week from Sunday. It can be anything! Whistle if you can. Or send a video of you learning how to whistle if you can't. Reenact a story from the Bible with costumes you find in your closet. Dance to your favorite song. Show us how you cut an onion. Teach us how to fold a sheet. Anything... It's on video so you can take as many takes as you want before you send it in. (By the way, usually holding your phone horizontally helps the video when shown on a larger screen, but send anything you have and I'll include it.) This is not limited to members of Wesley Park so please extend the invitation. A good laugh heals a lot of hurts. Indeed. -- Peace, Dean  Daily Lectionary Readings for Year B
Jeremiah 29:1-14 The Joshua Task Force has been watching over us with love and care. One of the factors for us to be able to regather with restrictions like masks, social distancing, washing of hands, limited numbers, etc., is the Positivity Rate in our area. If that number is below 5% for three consecutive weeks, and there are no other concerning factors, we can come back and worship again in the Family Life Center. (We will always have online worship.) The Positivity Rate has been steadily declining. If this trend continues, vaccines increase, and the new strains do not proliferate, it is possible that we can be present at the church by the beginning of March. What a day of rejoicing that will be. Stay tuned and we will make sure everyone knows when it is safe to return. Jeremiah wrote a letter to the Israelites who were in exile. They were forced to leave their homes and live in a foreign land. In some ways, we have also been forced from our communities by this virus. Jeremiah encouraged the people to make the best life they could in this time away. And, God says through Jeremiah, "Surely I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." Continue to radiate love, show kindness, be generous, pray fervently, and worship God where you are. We are on a journey, and God is leading us. When it is time, God will call us back home again. Today might be a good day to give someone a call and ask how they are doing in this time apart. And, talk together about what it might feel like to return home, to worship at Wesley Park again. For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. -- Peace, Dean Daily Lectionary Readings for Year B Numbers 22:22-28 Donkeys have that sixth sense. They see things others do not see. They notice the presence of a Spirit before anyone else. A donkey is sensitive to its surroundings and spooks easily. The donkey in today's readings does everything it can do to avoid the angel with a sword in its hand standing in the pathway. It tries to turn around, go off the path, and squeeze by. Finally, it just lays down. Each time the donkey is yelled at, until God gives it a voice to respond, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” I can't help but think of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, with that sad, baritone voice. “And out floated Eeyore. "Eeyore!" cried everybody. Looking very calm, very dignified, with his legs in the air, came Eeyore from beneath the bridge. "It's Eeyore!" cried Roo, terribly excited. "Is that so?" said Eeyore, getting caught up by a little eddy, and turning slowly round three times. "I wondered." "I didn't know you were playing," said Roo. "I'm not," said Eeyore. "Eeyore, what are you doing there?" said Rabbit. "I'll give you three guesses, Rabbit. Digging holes in the ground? Wrong. Leaping from branch to branch of a young oak-tree? Wrong. Waiting for somebody to help me out of the river? Right. Give Rabbit time, and he'll always get the answer." "But, Eeyore," said Pooh in distress, "what can we--I mean, how shall we--do you think if we--" "Yes," said Eeyore. "One of those would be just the thing. Thank you, Pooh.” ― A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner Or, here's some life advice below from Eeyore. If you're feeling sad or blue or are having a particularly hard day, remember you're not the only one. And remember as well that you have lots of friends to pick you up when you are down. Okay. Good talk. -- Peace, Dean Daily Lectionary Readings for Year B
Psalm 46 is one to write out and add to all that is on your refrigerator, to keep ever mindful. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Read it again and again. Commit it to memory. Breathe it out when you most need to be reminded that you are loved, God is present, and there is no need to fear. The Psalm speaks to the power God has to bring peace, to end war, to cease conflict. "Be still and know that I am God." This might be a good day to give someone a call. Read to each other the words from Psalm 46. Sometimes it helps to speak God's promises out loud so that they can settle into the mind and inform the heart. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. -- Peace, Dean Daily Lectionary Readings for Year B When you read the Book of Acts, you quickly realize the risks and rewards of the first followers of Christ. They endured ridicule and punishment. They were threatened with torture and death. And still, they told the story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Gamaliel was right. If it wasn't from God, it would not survive. But if it is from God, it could never be overthrown. I imagine this morning the Apostles talking together the day after nearly being killed by a mob. What do we do next? Do we run and hide? They decided to stay and share, celebrating the life that comes through Christ. We are in the midst of a global pandemic. This is yet another opportunity to praise God and to shine the light of the living Christ into the world. We can choose not to run and hide, but to stay and share. I have attached the Wesley Park Newsletter. It was supposed to be sent out earlier this month but the Bulk Mailing didn't work as planned. I apologize for that, but I hope that you will read it and share it. In the midst of suffering, what do we do? We hold onto our faith. We cook some warm meals. We find room to laugh. We make a Pandemic Recipe book. We record a Variety Show. I hope you can embrace these invitations as we seek the strength to make our way through this storm. -- Peace, Dean
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REv. Dean N. PrentissI am blessed to be the Pastor at Wesley Park UMC. Find Daily Lectionary Readings Here. Archives
February 2021
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