Ponder Anew

May 23, 2025

We attended a gallery exhibition while we were in Amman, Jordan. It was photographs by Palestinian artist  Raeda Sa’adeh . She lives and works in Jerusalem. Her photographs were large, and of high resolution with everything in clear focus.  There were about ten pieces in the exhibition. The lighting was very bright, and there were large windows, and so you had to look at the photos from different angles to see the whole picture. Maybe this was by design. I tried to get a picture of them, but there was always too much shadow and reflection. Maybe, this was also by design. Artists are always creative.

So, I took some pictures. What do you think? Her photo is called the Narcissist. She is looking down into a reflection of herself. Try to find it. Shirley is now in the piece taking a picture. In the background is the reflection of the window of light. There are other smaller reflections in my picture. What do you see ? How does my photo change the picture and its meaning ?

For me, it is like a story of Jesus. There is always a lot going on. In a miracle story of a feeding of 5000 people, there is Jesus, the disciples, the people being fed, the food, the weather, and the people outside of the picture. In the story of the crucifixion, in all the Gospels, there is so much to report. As you think of the death of Jesus, what picture do you get ? The cross, Peter, Mary, the whip or the crown of thorns ? How would you draw Jesus on the cross ? Faith is so rich and complex, never the same, each and every day. A new picture of Jesus and salvation to reflect on, and act upon in the glorious creation.

AMEN Praying for the guns, the bombs and the death to stop in Gaza.

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? 

MPL 2025

May 21, 2025

Good afternoon,

” For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who does it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:19-20

I was given a book to read by a friend. The title is ” The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks “. Tissue was taken from Henrietta’s body in 1951. She died of cervical cancer soon after. Scientists had been trying to grow cells outside the body for years, and when they tried to grow Henrietta’s, the cells kept growing and growing. They have been used ever since, in all kinds of medical tests and treatments. There are  billions of her cells all over the world. They are known as HeLa cells. The first doctors never got consent from her family to harvest the tissue from her body. The Lacks family was African-American, and never compensated. Racism was part of the story. There were good people acting badly all over the story.

In the book, there is this story told. Dr. Alexis Carrel invented the heart bypass surgical technique ( I was saved by this in 2007 ). He won the Nobel Prize for this work in 1912 . He was the first to suture together a piece of human tissue and a chicken heart. People thought that this would lead to immortality for all people.  But Carrel did not want immortality for everyone. He wanted… ” to preserve what he saw as the superior white race , which he saw as being polluted by less intelligent and inferior stock, namely the poor, the uneducated and non-white… He would later praise Hitler for his energetic measures he took in that direction.” ( page 59 )

I think we are all infected with this thing called sin. We want to do good, but sometimes we just can’t stop ourselves from doing bad things. The sin of the brokennes gets in the way. Sometimes we say, ” the devil made me do it “, but I believe that is a sinful attitude in itself. We could go down the rabbit hole of theological conspiracy, and try to find where sin entered the world and our lives.  Paul is being so honest here about his own shortcomings or sin. We need to believe in the graciousness of God, so our sin will be smashed to smithereens, and we can get on with changing the world for the better.

GAZA.

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? 

MPL 2025

May 20 , 2025

Good afternoon,” There are moments, and it is only a matter of five or six seconds, when you feel the presence of the eternal harmony…a terrible thing is the frightful clearness with which it manifests itself and the rapture with which it fills you. If this state would last more than five seconds the soul could not endure it and would have to disappear. During these five seconds I live a whole existence, and for that I would give my whole life and not think I was paying too dearly. ”   Fyodor Dostoevsky  ( 1821-1881 ) One of my top ten books is Crime and Punishment, by Dostoevsky. It was one of the books that I read that I learned about and reflected on the sin in my life. The book is about a murder by Raskolnikov. Dostoevsky was a Russian writer who was a Christian, so it is not s a surprise that I learned about sin and salvation from him. He is a great storyteller, as well as a theologian. He continues to be read all over the world. Eugene Petersen ( who translated the Bible into the The Message ) read him as a devotional writer. Peterson would put an hour a week in his day book to be intentional about reading Dostoevsky in prayer.
Do you meet God in spurts of four, five or six seconds or do you have mountain top experiences last a day or two or longer ? Moses met God in a burning bush and on a mountain. Elijah met God not in the fire or in the wind or in a earthquake, but in the silence. The Old Testament says no one who has met God and has lived ! Jesus went away to be in silence with God. God met Jesus in the form of a dove. Jesus spoke to God while on the cross . Where have you met God, and was it in passing or was it a whole afternoon ? What was it like, and how do you describe it ?

” I know a man in Christ about fourteen years ago (whether he was in the body I cannot tell, or whether he was out of the body I cannot tell, God knows) who was taken up into the third heaven. And I know the same man (whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell, God knows), how he was taken up into Paradise and heard words not to be spoken which no man can utter. ”  Second Corinthians 12:2-4This is strange talk by Paul referring to himself in the third person. When we meet God, we talk about it personally. Why do you think he chose to write it in this way ? Is it too dangerous to talk about our experience with God ?
I hope and trust you meet or met God today, in Spirit and in Truth. Praying for Gaza . AMEN

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? 

MPL 2025

May 6, 2025

Today was my first Tuesday where I did not head out to Poole Church. I did some chores around the yard, and did some errands in town. I read some books, did the crossword, and I tried to finish my jigsaw puzzle of the Kissing Bridge of West Montrose. I will not bore you everyday with my plans and schedules, but I thought maybe you might want to know. 

During our Anabaptist tour, I reflected on the book of Acts. The book is a travelogue with some of the important events with the early church. The church began in Jerusalem, and then went to all over the known world including Rome. It is one of the longest books in the New Testament, and provides us with a glimpse of the early leaders like Peter, Paul and Jesus’ brother James. After chapter nine, it is mostly about Paul and his interaction with the early churches in Corinth, Philippi and Ephesus among the many cities that he visited, and wrote letters to those communities.

I do not think that Paul intended to write Scripture. He was a good Jewish believer, and so the Law was enough for him. He was a Pharisee, and so was connected to the politics of the synagogue and temple. According to Acts, he often went to a synagogue when he came to a new city. He wrote his letters for encouragement and some admonition. The churches did not always get along with each other. This is why the letters are so good, they are about real issues. And Paul did not announce these letters as Scripture. It took the church over 300 years to announce these letters as God’s word. 

I offer you the trillium flower as a symbol for the church going forward, with God as the perfecter of our faith.

Praying always for Gaza. AMEN.