Overflowing

A sturdy palm near our place that made it through the hurricane.

You want to be very generous with a gift of hard candy.  You fill the container, shake the contents down, press as many pieces in as you can together, and when your friend opens it the candy spills out.
Luke's is the only Gospel in which Jesus uses that homey image to stress what a great reward awaits generosity (6:38.)

Like God

From another year.  Not that I'm eager or anything!

In Luke 6:27-38 Jesus tells us to be like God who is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.  "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."  We could use this passage to examine our conscience everyday of our lives and still be found wanting. We simply cannot be good without God.

Sharing Possessions

This Sunday from Luke's Gospel we start reading Jesus' "Sermon on the Plain" (16:17-49.)  Much shorter than Matthew's "Sermon on the Mount,"  the rest of it will be the selections for the next two Sundays.  In the context of the whole sermon, it is clear that Jesus in verses 20-22 is not saying that it is a good thing to be poor with nothing to eat or to be dejected and beaten down.  Jesus is not declaring any social class fortunate or unfortunate.  The poor that he is praising are all of those who say to God, "Without you, we can do nothing." 

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Jesus said,
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments
you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments
and remain in his love.
I have told you this
so that my own joy may be in you
and your joy be complete.
This is my commandment:
love one another,
as I have loved you.
(John 15:10-12)

Stretch

Another year's springtime.

Blessed is anyone who trusts in the Lord. 
He is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots to the stream (Jeremiah 17:7.)
In a culture that doesn't feed our relationship with God, we have  to stretch toward whatever Beauty we can to meet the Divine.

Why Me?!

This is the view from our porch in the Caribbean. 

Sunday's Gospel is Luke's story of Jesus' choosing Peter as a disciple (5:1-11.)  Jesus gives no reason.  Peter says he is a sinner.  In Sunday's first reading God gives no reason for choosing Isaiah (6:1-8.)  Isaiah says he is a sinner.  In the second reading from First Corinthians Paul points out that he was even persecuting the followers of Jesus, yet God chose him.  God chooses us to do some particular work in the world simply out of God's own unearned love for us.

God's Work

"By the  grace of God I am what I am, and God's grace in me has not been in vain."
                                                            St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 15:10
One of two Scripture quotes that I live by (the other is "I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me." Galatians 2:20.)  I meditated on the Corinthian passage this morning.  Having been blinded and knocked to the ground by a vision of the Risen Jesus while he was on his way to persecute Christians, Paul was abundantly clear that his Christian faith was God's work.  The only good any of us will ever find in ourselves is God's doing.god's

Surf to Snow

I just took this picture and the snow hasn't stopped.  I love the beauty of it even though I know it disrupts a lot of plans.  I came back from vacation in the Caribbean a week ago.  Sunny, hot days, warm ocean, rain only during a few nights.  Sharp contrast here where our temperatures dropped to three below zero this week and today's lovely snow may end up being ten inches.  Both climates make me happy.