“ALL HALLOWS”

Embrace the golden splendor where it breaks

From folds of God-washed garments. The shimmering

Harvest of this field of friends ripens in

The light reflected from the light which falls

Upon the broadening crowd. Breathe in reverence!

And whisper wondering, life-awakening words:

Living words inspired by rising beauty.

Contagious witness, praise, ripples the field

Of souls; praise at their glimpse of One enthroned:

“World-Making-Saving-Word!” The unity

(Redemption’s tide) where love and justice meet

With wounded hands (to bring the ransomed home)

Begins the chorus. Sung from one heart,

It spirals to an all-including round,

Resurging, swelling on, in waves of time;

And to the beat of ages echoing.

So, in the Lord’s eternal feast, the share

Of glory, joy, and praise will always grow.

(By Dennis Evans - As seen during an All Saints Day sermon preached by Dr. Paul Francis, at University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, in 1975; revised.)

"2 Corinthians: For Those Who Have Their Treasure in Clay Pots"

A Crown of Thorns

2 Corinthians can play a unique role in spiritual and vocational formation.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul describes the formal components of the Christian message, teachings, and lifestyle in very personal ways and in application to his own life. 

Reconciliation:

Spiritual and incarnational: Christ makes us a new creation, and agents/servants of the new creation, and the righteousness of God: 5:16-21.

1.    1:3-10, God becomes our Comforter (advocate, encourager, reinforcement) in the face of our fear, depression, and failure. My first call provoked what really was a clique that controlled the congregation to get the presbytery to remove me from the church, which seriously hampered my ability to seek further calls. I seemed doomed, and this haunted my ministry for years. How has God reinforced our efforts to face and challenge our fear, depression, and failure?

2.    4:7-18, God grace enables our own reconciliation with our flawed, sinful selves.

3.    1:17-22, God becomes our Hope of victory; all of God’s promises will say “Yes” to us. (Has God made us able to face challenges in hope that your efforts will bear fruit?)

4.    3:12-18; 4:6, God becomes our friend: love and grace and covenant in Christ initiates communion, communication, spiritual perception, friendship. How do we enjoy God’s friendship?

5.    7:2-16, God becomes our reconciliation with others. (The presence of God in Christ enabled me to relate to others without fear.) Has God enabled this in our lives?

Motivation:

Empowerment and Discipline and Humor

1.    Empowerment: 5:1-10, God motivates a faith-based courage, knowing that defeat and loss and the end of important endeavors will not have the last word. (I believed that God was calling me to ministry in the Presbyterian Church and the Church seemed predisposed to rejecting my calling, But God told me I should seek this anyway.) How has God called us to seek what seems guaranteed not to work?

2.    Discipline: 1:11, God motivates prayer: Asking others to pray for us; 12:7-8, maintaining our own repeated prayer for our own growth; 1:15-16, 1:23-2:4 God motivates learning through one’s mistakes and experience. What might these disciplines require of us?

3.    Humor: 11:30-33, God motivates a sense of humor: boasting about being lowered over the city wall in a basket, so laughing at his own troubles and hardships, instead of boasting; 12:8-10, God says “My strength is made perfect in weakness” so I will boast about my weaknesses. (When I first came under care of presbytery in an attempt to be a candidate for the ministry; the loudest voices doubted my stamina for facing adversity or criticism. At my ordination, one of those presented me with a band aide to keep in my wallet for when I might get hurt.) --- How does God assist our motivation to serve by assisting our sense of humor? It’s true that Paul was very capable of making a sarcastic apology, and he does this a lot in 2 Corinthians, especially in 12:11-13. Does sarcasm have a place in Christian life and service? Did Paul have a purpose in this sarcasm?

Incarnation:

How do we embody this work of God in our lives?

1.    Embodiment of the message of the victory of God in Christ through endurance and positive, constructive, and affirming relationships with others: 6:1-11. I never stopped doing this, even with those who don’t accept me. How do we try to do this?

2.    We embody God’s truth through honesty and confession: again see 1:23-2:4.

“Love’s Worth: A Theological Speculation"

I do not know if I know how to love;

Love truly, wholly, and unstoppably.

So, do I, can I, simply give my heart

To be invested in the treasures God

Creates within the lives he shows to me?

I might not love what God has made of me!

The self I do not love – can it love God?

Some say that God loves all, including me.

The Infinite loves all infinitely.

Because of me alone, may this make God

The infinitely unrequited Lover?

 

(Dennis Evans, September 2022)

 

Thomas Merton: "Thoughts in Solitude: VI"

First week in September 2022, I came across these lines in Merton's "Thoughts in Solitude: VI" and felt amazed and deeply moved by them. 

BONES in the Bible. A Brief Study in Response to a Brother’s Question

(Isenheim Altarpiece, 1512-1516
Matthias Grunewald)

Exodus 12:43-49 (but especially verse 46)

Psalm 34 (but especially verses 19-20)

John 19:31-37 (especially verse 36) 

Bones in the Old Testament (and in OT Hebrew thinking) are part of the soul/life of a person, a family, a friendship, a body of people (like the nation of Israel, or the Church the Body of Christ, or - I think - the whole people or kingdom of God (as in: "you are my flesh and bone", or "bone and blood", or other variations).

Our bones knit us together (make us whole, one, united). Our bones make us whole in the sense of making us strong, or able, or properly functional.

The Passover Lamb, as a sacrifice, and as the basis of the Passover meal, is a mediator, and a promise, and a bond on the journey from Egypt to the Promised land, from slavery to freedom. The Lamb represents God, and God's promises (as being strong, and well tied together, and complete) for the journey. The Passover Lamb represents Israel/God's people (including the Church), who are an offering to God as one body, and one soul for the journey.

Jesus is the wholeness of God coming to us, and the wholeness of us, ourselves, including all of God's beloved people and creation.

Jesus is (incarnates) the offering of Israel, and of the house of David, and of the whole of the Church: offering to God the wholeness that we cannot give to God because of our fallenness.

In Christ our self-giving will be whole, entire, perfect, strong, fully functioning; and this will be fulfilled in us when God finishes his work of making a new heaven and earth. But we can have some connection with this in our lives now.

It represents how we stand before God and each other in faith, hope, and love.

In the end, we can count on God's promise that we will not be broken, just as Christ remained unbroken for us. Sometimes, by the Lord's grace and gift, we can experience being held within this promise now.

Brother! Thank you for asking about the bone and the unbroken bones in the Bible, because it's an issue that we Christians do not deal with very consistently or thoroughly. Usually, we deal with these issues from different "pivot points" than through "the bones".

, (From Ghent Altarpiece, by Jan van Eyck, completed 1432)

“The Cross Beams”

-“The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8) -

 

The beams of the world are made from wood.

They’re fastened with nails and stained with blood.

Embraced by the outstretched arms of God,

They bind all things for good.

 

The beams of the world shore up our heart

For God’s renovation, every part:

The clean up of Satan’s poison dart;

Then our true life shall start.

 

The beams of the world are battle torn.

They rise against evil, fear, and scorn.

Protecting the weary, weak, and worn,

They guard the coming morn.

 

The beams of the world an outline trace,

Through order and chaos, pain and grace.

They shape what they bear, through time and space,

Revealing God’s true face.

 

The beams of the world are scales that weigh

The worth of a life, a choice, a day,

By weight of a God who works in clay,

And dies to have his say.

 

The beams of the world are lines and bars

That carry the music of the stars;

The ballad of long and hopeful wars,

Where God has won his scars.

 

The beams of the world hang low with fruit,

While sliver and thorn send forth their shoot

Where God hung his head, forlorn and mute,

And bowed to plant their root.

 

The beams of the world, unseen, untold,

Are stronger than steel, more royal than gold.

All heaven and earth they gently hold:

The hands of God enfold.

 

The beams of the world enthrone a King,

Like girders that tower, and vault, and spring

The crossing he died and rose to bring:

The life the angels sing!

 

(Written by Dennis Evans, October 2004)

"I'm Scared"

Lord Jesus, of the Great Heart,

Rescue me from my fears.
Make me to not fear my fears,

Make me to not fear my loves!

(written February 19, 2022)