No church again today

Snow again on a Sunday and Trinity, Milton--north-west of here--cancelled the service again.

I'm tired of this.

My sermon, hand-written, didn't have to be preached so I forwarded the document I couldn't print--see yesterday's blog--to Bill who will put it in the on-line newsletter he does twice a week.

Bill does the best newsletters I've ever seen from a church.

Full of pictures he takes on his phone and lots of newsy and clever things.

Email me if you'd like to be on the e-mail list Bill has and I'll forward it to Bill.

It wasn't terribly bad here but deeper in Milton, where they don't clear the roads early on Sunday.

Snow, Snow go away!

I like to go to church....

 

My printer is broken

 Every time I turn it on, it starts printing out a 20 plus page document I already printed, then has a paper jam!

When I clear the jam, my printer starts at the beginning of the same document, jams!

Starts over at the beginning...jams...

(You get the picture.)

I had to hand write my sermon for tomorrow from the document I have stored but can't print. (My writing is terrible and I can't always read it. I get to the store with a list and can't figure out what 2 of the things on it mean.) Pray for me tomorrow.

Bern fooled with the printer for 40 minutes or so--starts printing old document, jams, starts over when jam is clear....

Now she knows for herself what I've been cussing about lately.

Probably get a new printer next week.

Nowhere in Cheshire to find one so I'll have to print out directions to a place somewhere else....Oh, right, I can't do that....

 

This Sunday's sermon

Epiphany 6, 2022

       Luke is the most compassionate gospel.

       John, on the other hand, has only seven miracles. Jesus turns water into wine, raises Lazarus from the dead and heals a few people.

       Not Luke.

       Luke is full of miracles.

       In today’s gospel, “The crowd were trying to touch him” and he healed them All!

       ALL OF THEM!!!

       What follows next is one version of the Beatitudes.

       “Beatitudes” comes from the Greek word which means ‘blessed”.

       The other version of the Beatitudes comes in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 5, verses 1-11.

       Interestingly, Matthew’s version is ‘the sermon on the mount’ since Jesus is on a hillside. In Luke it is the ‘sermon of the plain’, since he is on a flat place.

       Go figure.

       Matthew and Luke (whoever they were) were writing with a copy of Mark’s Gospel and the Gospel called “Q” in front of them.

       The idea for the Beatitudes came from Q, since Mark doesn’t have them.

       The versions in Matthew and Luke have some significant differences.

       Luke says ‘you who are poor’, while Matthew says, “you who are poor in spirit’.

       To be ‘poor in spirit’ implies that you know you need God, not that you have no money.

       So, in Matthew, those who ‘know they need God” will have the Kingdom of God. That makes more sense than Luke.

       Also, Matthew has no “woe to you” verses, only ‘blessed are you’ verses.

       And in Matthew, Jesus heals no one before the Beatitudes.

       The Beatitudes turn thing inside-out and upside down.

       The ‘hungry’ will be ‘filled’.

       Those who weep will ‘laugh’.

       The hated and excluded and reviled and defamed will ‘rejoice’ because their reward will be great in heaven.

       But in Luke, the ‘woe to you’ are even more distinct.

       Woe to the rich. They have nothing to look forward too.

       Woe to the full. They will have hunger.

       Woe to the laughing. They will mourn and weep.

       Woe to those who people speak well of. They will be like the false prophets.

       Inside out and upside down indeed!

       That’s what God wants to do to us.

       God wants to turn our fear into courage.

       God wants to our hatred into love.

       God wants to take away our prejudices and turn it into acceptance.

       God wants to turn our doubt into faith.

       God wants to turn our selfishness into compassion.

       God wants to make us inside-out and up-side down.

       God wants to ‘transform’ us into his children.

       Give thanks and praise to our God who wants to do all that for us.

       Our God wants to make us WHOLE.

       And we should want that—long for that, accept that too.

       Shalom and Amen.

      

 

Oh, my God!

    Hundreds of kids at a high school in Huntington, West Virginia (my home state) were invited into the auditorium for what was a Evangelical prayer meeting.

    Many of them (over a hundred) were upset and walked out of home room to protest that the division between church and state had been violated.

    They were right.

    There is no place in public schools were religion is celebrated.

    Many of their parents complained on line and in person.

    To this point, none of the teachers who planned it or the principle who attended, have been held accountable.

    Look on line and see it all.

    Oh, my God!

    What a violation of the law and human religious rights!

    In my home state.

    I am humble and angry.

    That should not happen.

 

A little warmer

Today was almost bearable. In the low 40's.

Alleluia!

The former President (who I will not name) is in deep trouble with the January 6 committee, the state of New York and the state of Georgia.

May he please be prosecuted in all places on all counts.

Please.

Republican Senators are standing up against the RNC who censored the two Republicans on the Jan. 6 committee.

They are saying the Jan. 6 folks were insurrectionists, not involved in 'political debate'.

God bless them.

Covid deaths among the un-vaccinated are still rising.

God help them to know the truth.

Ukraine is still a problem.

The problem is Putin.

God help us all.

Not a good time to be alive.

But it was warmer today....

 

 

 

Who are you?

 I get, on average, 200 views a day. But I don't know who all is reading my blog.

So, if you are a reader, I'd like you to comment or send me an email at Padrejgb@aol.com.

I'd love to know who you are.

Can you help me by doing that?

Even as it drizzles, as it has most of the day, late into the night, I wonder who you are.

Thanks for reading and let me know if you would like to.

Shalom and good night, Jim

I long for spring

I know I've written it before, but it deserves being restated--I hate the cold!

l hate, Hate, HATE the cold.

I always have on three or four layers to try to keep warm and still can't.

On our bed, Bern has like three layers and I have six or seven and I sometimes am still cold.

Our house is at 68-70 degrees but I'm still chilly.

There were lots of birds in our yard--still some snow--today.

I long for all the birds coming back.

I long for spring and some warmth.

Funny, in the summer, I love air conditioning--but in the winter, I long for spring.

It can't come soon enough for me.

It will be in the 40's later this week.

Even that is good.

I can't wait....