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Churchgoers have heard before that God wants to be in an intimate relationship with us. For bored or distracted Christians God's offer of a dialogue and partnership can seem to weigh about three on an emotional scale of one to ten -- kind of a "so what?" Yet, if we view our personal relationship with God beside all that Psalm 99 states, we'll recall the gigantic privilege God grants us in listening to our cry. Verses 1 and 4 call Yahweh the "king," in the sense of the heavenly king who shakes the physical earth and shakes up all people. Verse 4 declares that he insists on perfect justice -- scary no matter who we are. Then "big guns" are summoned from Israel's history: Moses, Aaron, and Samuel. God responded to them...
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Listening
by Dean Feldmeyer
An earthquake devastates Haiti, and almost immediately a generous public moves to begin shipping aid to those who have been injured and left homeless, to those who have lost friends and loved ones. Water, clothing, food, medicine all pour into the country. And in some cases, people pour in too. The people on the ground are saying, "Please don't come yet. We can't feed you or shelter you or protect you. Unless you are part of an organized effort like the Red Cross and have a specific task that you can perform, like surgery, please stay away." But people don't listen and they come, expecting to swoop in and swoop out with a couple dozen orphaned children. They don't listen to the laws and customs of the country they are entering. And now ten of them, who came with only the best intentions, are in jail -- because they didn't listen first....
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Perched on the Edge of Heaven
I know I'm going to regret pacing the house when I should be sleeping. With so much to do tomorrow, I'll be exhausted halfway through the day! My cousin's family is joining us for the sabbath, and my mother will have her hands full with all of the children, so it is up to me to be cook, hostess, servant, and problem-solver. Simon will be his usual jovial self, but he's useless around the house! Or maybe I should start calling him Peter. That's the name his renegade rabbi gave him -- Cephas, Peter in your language. It means "rock," which is a great symbol of strength, but unfortunately I always associated my husband with things less steady, less predictable. Wind, maybe, since he is certainly full of hot air…
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Wayne Brouwer
Glow in the Dark
Marie Curie shared a Nobel Prize with her husband for the discovery of the causes of radioactivity. After he was killed in a traffic accident, Marie distinguished herself in many ways, including naming two newfound elements (polonium and radium), achieving a Nobel Prize, raising a daughter who would earn a Nobel prize of her own, and founding or equipping several research schools. But Madame Curie died in 1934 as a direct result of prolonged and unprotected exposure to the very substances she "gave" to the world. There is a kind of allegorical parallel between Curie's story and today's lectionary passages. They revolve around reports of eerie glowing that happens when people experience direct encounters with the divine...
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Keith Hewitt
The Messenger
From where he sat -- on the crest of a hill that rose from the dusty shore of a sea that would not be named for over a thousand years -- the fierce orb of the sun looked as though it was floating on the dun-colored sea. In another day or so it would start to sink visibly, eventually fading from sight for a couple of weeks before it climbed above the low, rolling hills behind him once more. Overhead, a disk of mottled blue and white looked down on the scene. Earth. What a pain. "So, Tsiyr, I thought I would find you here." He recognized the wry tone of his supervisor and didn't bother to look. "Then you were right," he answered simply. There was a gentle chuckle. "That's why I get the big wings, I guess"...
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Janice Scott
Has God Been Tamed?
The presence of God is often denoted by a blinding light. When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain and Moses and Elijah appeared on either side of him, he shone with a blinding radiance which caused Peter, James, and John to shield their eyes. And when St. Paul met with God on the road to Damascus, he was so blinded by the light that he was unable to see at all for several days. But nothing like that seems to happen these days. Has God been tamed, or is God really dangerous? Was the reaction of the people to the radiance of Moses simply a primitive reaction from a primitive time, or was it a deeper sensitivity to God than we in the 21st century shall ever know?...
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Leah Thompson
True Freedom
Object: handcuffs
Today I brought a pair of handcuffs with me. Who uses handcuffs? (allow answers) Why do they use handcuffs? (allow answers) Handcuffs are used to lock people up. When you have on handcuffs, it's hard to do things because you can't move your hands very easily. Are you free if you are wearing handcuffs? (allow answers) No, probably not! Wearing handcuffs usually means that you have been arrested, or maybe you are in jail. There is a story in the Bible about men who were in jail. Their names were Paul and Silas. Paul and Silas went around to towns and cities to preach the word of God and share the good news! But then they got arrested. Do you think God's servants should be arrested?...
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