Hope From the Good News of the Gospel

Hope from the Fresh Air of the Gospel

Deacon Gay Romack Arizona

“When the fresh air of the Gospel becomes our oxygen, the collective sin of the world will burn our sensitized lungs like toxic fumes. We will notice injustice everywhere we turn, and our powerlessness will crucify our hearts. Then, we will know the hope of the Resurrection from the inside. God’s power to raise, to heal, and to save will flow through us because God will be our only lasting hope.”—Br. Keith Nelson, SSJE

I try to remember and say this prayer as I stand to read the Gospel each Sunday. Gospel means Good News. Each year, I learn more and more that this is a weekly privilege, and one of our diaconal missions is to concentrate on reading the Gospel to the best of our abilities.

St. Taddeus Aiken SC

That means practicing it out loud until it becomes part of our being. Not overacting or underacting. Trying to surrender to the message. I have learned that we can only deliver the Word if we are connected to the Christ within. We strive to sense the Spirit within us and the presence of Christ in each member of the congregation, particularly those who may be struggling.

When this happens, healing electricity flows from the Word to the people and back to the Gospel. Truly hearing the Word can then move our hearts to action. The message of Christ in the Gospel leads us to share the presence of Christ in each other, as the Gospel message permeates the nave of the church. This healing presence gives us peace and promise for the day, healing for the past, and hope for the future.

Christ Church Winnetka. Deacon newly ordained

Those who study dreams believe every dream has a promise and a warning. This may also be true in many gospel passages we read and hear each Sunday. Looking for the warning and the promise, as we do in dreamwork, as we read and hear the Sunday Gospel message, might give us new hope in the Good News and God’s message.

Joanna joannseibert.com

The Gospel and God's Politics

In the Midst of the City, the Gospel and God’s Politics

By Barkley Thompson

“As Christians, we must not begin with our secular political beliefs..and then use the Gospel to prop them up. Rather, we must begin with the Gospel and allow the Gospel to shape our politics.”—Barkley Thompson in In the Midst of the City, the Gospel and God’s Politics.

I once was in three book groups reading Barkley Thompson’s second book, In the Midst of the City.

The book’s first section represents a collection of sermons he wrote as dean of Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Houston.

Barkley reminds us of Marcus Borg’s story of the two processions in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday entering from opposite gates. Pilate enters as the representative of the Roman power of war, while Jesus enters, symbolizing God’s politics, the power of peace. “For Christians, leaving God’s politics out of the church is not an option. The Gospel, however, is not partisan, and God is neither conservative nor progressive.”

Barkley constantly reminds us of Karl Barth’s mandate to read both the Bible and the newspaper. Interpret the newspaper from the Bible, never the other way around. For example, in the face of the great tragedy of the killing and wounding at the Boston Marathon, the Gospel leads Barkley to remind us to look for the helpers, those who are reaching out to those who have been harmed.

The second section addresses what it means to be a Christian and an American in light of the Gospel. Patriotism differs from nationalism. The patriot gives his heart to the best that patriotism stands for, even in the face of fear and assault by those who have lost an understanding of liberty.

The third section represents essays published on his blog in the Houston Chronicle. They represent his personal discernment process, hoping to see God’s vision for the world. The chapter titles speak for themselves: “I Own Guns, and I Believe in Gun Control,” “Of Orlando and the Virtue of Embrace,” and “On Civil War Monuments.”

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Movie Dates and Prayer

Movie Dates and Prayer Time

“I have a theory that movies operate on the level of dreams, where you dream yourself.”—Meryl Streep.

My granddaughter, Zoe, and I have been having a date for many years on Friday afternoons to watch old movies. I wish we could swim together, stroll in the woods, or walk down some of Little Rock’s beautiful trails, but my physical disability makes that too difficult. However, we can curl up in the king-size bed in our master bedroom, all lights out, each covered by our favorite blankets, while we eat popcorn and watch movies. We have seen almost every musical made. Sometimes, we watch drama, and less often, comedy.

One week, Zoe saw Some Like It Hot for the first time. Recently, we watched Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. I forgot to mention that Zoe spent part of her junior year in Denmark and her summer working in New Orleans. Now that she’s a senior at Tulane, we have fewer movie dates. We usually talk a little about the film after it is over. Sometimes, there is much to discuss; at other times, there is very little. One of my favorites to see with her was Babette’s Feast, a film about food and life.

Zoe is a Greek word for life. This is a photograph of Zoe on her first trip to Greece one summer with friends. Life is what our grandchildren teach us about: life in the present moment.

In the past, I have shared paintings from my favorite art museums with Zoe, and rarely have we read poetry together. But, mainly, there is so much grandparents want to share with their precious grandchildren.

However, it is predominantly about the pleasure of being in our grandchildren’s presence. They connect us to our souls. I have learned to drop everything and be with her whenever she texts about a potential movie date.

For me, this movie date has become an icon of what prayer time may be about. I think there is some built-in homing device through which God and we yearn for each other’s presence. Prayer is occasionally words, but mostly presence. I believe God longs to share God’s experience and amazing world with us, but mostly God longs for our presence, just as there is a conscious and maybe even a stronger unconscious longing in us just to be in God’s presence.

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/