Suffering

A number of members of our congregation have been reading through the entire Bible this year. It's been a rewarding project. I've been reading Eugene Peterson's paraphrase in The Message, which reads more like a story book than the NRSV translation of the Bible. I've learned things I didn't know, and have a greater appreciation for some of the things I already knew. For example, after reading all the details of the planning and construction of the Temple in Jerusalem, I found myself truly sad when I read the story of its destruction in 587 B.C. I have worked hard to be sure I never fall more than a day or two behind. There's not a lot of reading for each day, but it piles up if I don't do the work on a regular basis. So far I've managed to never get more than a couple of days behind. I will miss this next year when I've finished all the reading.

In a couple of days, I will have finished reading the book of Job, the story of one man's suffering and all the inadequate responses his friends make in their efforts to get him to see the light and admit that he must somehow deserve what has happened in his life. Otherwise they will be forced to accept the fact that sometimes bad things really do happen to good people. We visited my husband's step mother this past weekend, and she is still deeply grieving the death of my father-in-law in May. They had such a short time together, and were so happy that his death has been really hard on her. This morning at the gym I struck up a conversation with one of the twins, two men in their 70s who are at the gym whenever I show up. He said that this week his wife will have been in a nursing home for seven years, and that's a long time. She has Alzheimer's, and he says he thinks it's the worst disease. I said I could see that as the person you love is still there, but they're not, and I expressed my condolences for his suffering in this situation. His wife seems to be beyond much suffering a this point.

Some days, like Job, I wonder what God is thinking when I look around and see the suffering of this world. For all the great theologians that have struggled with this problem, I don't think anyone has come up with any good answers. I know Job's friends didn't! What I do know is that in the darkest times of my life, when I have hurt beyond bearing, God has been as close to me as my very breath. So while, like Job, I may question God in my hurt and anger, I also trust that God loves me, and I'm grateful for that love to hold onto in this scary world.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

All Creatures of Our God and King

Lift up your voice and with us sing, Alleluia. This wonderful ancient song based on a poem by Francis of Assisi from 1225 has been running through my head since Moses and Zipporah woke me up barking this morning in stereo. My husband told me later they were watching two armadillos working their way down the fence. Though at the time they woke me from a dead sound sleep, I was not thinking of singing, the song is a reminder for me that we are the creatures, not the Creator. This past week was a sober reminder of that fact. We once again left the beach to escape an incoming hurricane. We left South Padre Island as Hurricane Dolly's outer rain bands began blowing in. What blew up rather quickly as a tropical storm was a Category Two hurricane by the time it hit South Padre Island dead on. By then we were in San Antonio watching the weather on television. For all that the vacation at the beach was cut short, we were grateful to be safe and glad that at last report there did not seem to be many injuries, though there was quite a bit of damage. Even after Dolly made landfall, the damage continued from the torrential rains. Whenever we think we are in control of this world and the universe, nature can quickly remind us that we are not. On most days I think that is a good thing.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Summertime

We leave in a few days for the beach. My husband has a conference and our middle son will also attend with him for the first time. Both are physicians. Our daughter-in-law and two oldest grand kids will also be going, so we will have lots of kid fun at the beach. We're travelling together to save gas as it's a long ways from where we live in Central Texas to the coast. I pray this will be a good time for my husband, who lost his mother recently. His father died in May. I always find the majesty of God's ocean soothing to my soul. It's a reminder that I'm not in control of the universe, and that's a good thing! It has been awhile since we made this trek. Last time Hurricane Emily arrived in South Texas shortly after we did so we left the island after only one afternoon on the beach. I'm accustomed to taking my portable easel and sitting under a large beach umbrella and painting while we there. In fact I learned after the first couple of summers of painting on the beach that I had become mildly famous as the artist on the beach. I actually sold a couple of paintings, an amazing experience as I paint for fun, not for profit. This time I think I will reluctantly leave my easel behind. There's only so much room in our van and with six of us making the trip I suspect we'll need the space for other things. And I will want to spend the time playing with the grand kids and talking with our son and daughter-in-law as well as simply relaxing. When we return I have another sermon to prepare. Summer is almost over and the pace will pick up as fall arrives. What a blessing to have an opportunity to slow down and play in God's beautiful world. I pray that will be healing balm to my husband's hurting heart.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Sowing Seeds

It's beginning to feel as if the only time I take the time to post to this blog is when I'm working on another sermon. Bloggin is probably yet another creative way to procrastinate getting back to the hard work of preparation. Even though I know for a fact that God helps me in this process, I still have to do my part. This time I'm wrestling with the parable of the sower, who scattered seeds with such wild abandon that they landed on the path, the rocks, and among the thorn bushes as well as on good soil--much like God's scattering of grace on the just and the unjust alike.

I have learned that broadcasting seed was the way to plant in Jesus' time and place. The seeds were scattered and then plowed under, the reverse of modern Western practice. Not being a farmer, what I didn't realize about this parable before I began this preparation process is that the reported harvest at the end of the story was a ridiculously extravagant one. The expected return for seed sown in Jesus' time and locale would have been about seven to ten fold. Instead the story tells of a harvest of 30, 60 or 100 fold, extravagant even with modern farming methods. As is always the case in Jesus' parables, something unusual is going on.

What I'm now struggling with is how to convey the unusual part of this story in a fresh way to our congregation. (As a side note, it's always scarier for me to preach in our home church, for these are people who have known me a long time.) What I've also learned in reading the commentaries and studying this passage is that Jesus aimed the parable directly at his disciples, implicitly asking them, "what type of soil do you provide and what kind of harvest can God expect in your life?" That's certainly cutting to the heart of the matter.

So now I'm wrestling with how to teach the congregation that this parable is not about judging the quality of soil in someone else's life, and that being good soil requires constant effort and attention, just like planting and caring for a garden. Maybe I'm also procrastinating because I'm now wondering what type of soil I am today, and hoping to produce a good harvest. May the Master Gardner grown an abundance of fruit in your life.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Carnage in the Kitchen

When we came back from walking the dogs this morning, my husband found a fat spider crawling across the kitchen floor and squashed it. The carcass exploded into hundreds of itsy bitty spiders, which rapidly began to scatter while he ran to fetch the handheld vacuum and suck them up. I walked in on the tail end of this drama. I was glad not to have hundreds of spiders running amok through the house, but also sad at the thought of so much death and destruction. I am a mother myself after all.

I'm preaching tomorrow on the general topic of chaos, and this event was a good prelude to my discussion of the ways that chaos has of crashing unexpectedly into our lives. And a good reminder of the real topic of the sermon, which is that living lives of faith and obedience gives us a life preserver to hold onto when life's storms and inevitable chaos threaten to drown us. At least that's the message I took from Jesus' parable about the wise builder who built on a solid rock foundation by hearing and following Jesus' teachings from the Sermon on the Mount and whose house stood when the rains fell and the floods came and the wind blew.

One of the commentaries I read in preparation said there is an ancient rabbinical parable that also tells of two builders. The wise one knows the Torah and acts upon it, while the foolish one merely knows, but does not act. More is required for faithful living than just hearing the teachings. Life change in response to hearing is the only thing that will give us a solid foundation on which to stand when life's storms come crashing in upon us.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Time

We managed to have all our children and all our grandchildren together in one place at the same time this weekend for a couple of hours, an increasingly rare occurrence. As I watched my sons and their wives interact with our grandchildren, I marvelled at what good parents they are. And I also wondered at where the time has gone, for it seems only the blink of an eye since our sons were little and demanding more energy and attention than it seemed humanly possible to provide. What a blessing to have lived long enough to know my children's children. I do not know if I will live long enough to see great grandchildren, but I am content to know my times are in God's good hands. At times such as we enjoyed this weekend, life seems filled to overflowing with God's goodness. At such times especially, it is worthwhile to take the time to reflect on that and to give thanks.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

For everything there is a season

And a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die;... a time to week, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance." Ecclesiastes 3:1,2 & 4

This week has been a time for death and mourning in our family. My husband's father died after a long life and 6 months of increasing illness and disability. It was also a time to laugh and share memories and to be with family, which is always good for us even under difficult circumstances. I like the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible because it's a blessing for me to know it's okay to have a dark view of life at times and that one can still worship and hold God in deep reverence from such a perspective. The teacher who is credited as the author sounds much like a modern cynic at times.

I've been reading and contemplating different scripture as I prepare to preach again in a couple of weeks. The scriptures on the lectionary for June 1st have to do with water, and I've been thinking about the fact that to the ancients water was connected with chaos. I guess not just for the ancients as recent events in Myanmar demonstrate and in China where water is adding to the destruction of the recent massive earthquake.

Death is a different type of chaos. Roget's Thesaurus lists disorder, confusion and void as synonyms for chaos. Having lost my mother 15 years ago this month, I think those are all good descriptions of some of what I felt after losing a parent. My husband commented that now he's the old man in his family, as I'm the old woman in mine. I'm grateful for the teacher's writings in Ecclesiastes on the seasons of life and of death. I'm not sure of all that God had in mind when we were created as creatures who die, but I do know that we are all in God's hands and that they are good hands. And I'm content to face the chaos of this life and this world secure in that knowledge.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue