June 7 is Trinity Sunday

Wed Jun 3 00:46:30 EDT 2009

Ecunet has Faithgroups back up. Here’s the weekly email in HTML format, with photos. Again, sorry for the delay.

Dear Gulf Coast Leaders,

June 7 – Trinity

 <http://www.textweek.com/prophets/isaiah6.htm> Isaiah 6:1-8 – Call of Isaiah. Six-winged seraph. Holy, holy, holy.
 <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm29.htm> Psalm 29  - Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. (Ps. 29:2)
 <http://www.textweek.com/pauline/rom8b.htm> Romans 8:12-17 – Life in the Spirit. Present suffering incomparable to the glory to be revealed. Creation eagerly waits… in labor
 <http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/jn3a.htm> John 3:1-17 – Nicodemus. Being born of the Spirit, which blows where it wills.

In our prayers…

This afternoon Mansholt, bishop of the Central States Synod and I exchanged text messages briefly as he was on his way to Wichita. George Tiller was shot in the head at close range and killed as he stood in the narthex of Reformation Lutheran Church, ushering just as the 10:00 service was starting. His wife watched from the choir. Dr. Tiller performed abortions at one of the few clinics in the U.S. that do third-trimester abortions. According to the CDC, the number of legal induced abortions in the U.S. in 2005 was 820,151, a 31-year low. In Kansas (as in Texas) later-term abortions are permitted only if the pregnancy is a threat to the life and health of the mother; a second physician must concur and give approval. Dr. Tiller had been shot in 1993, and his clinic was bombed in 1996. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest this morning. Our prayers are with George Tiller’s family and the people of Reformation Lutheran Church as they come to terms with this horrific event.

50-days of Prayer before the Churchwide Assembly – www.elca.org/50days 

Churchwide Assembly begins August 17. You are invited to pray for wisdom in discernment for the ELCA and voting members. The above website has daily prayers, the Scriptures being used at churchwide assembly with commentary, and Intercessory Prayers for worship to be used leading up to the assembly, during and after. Presiding <http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Office-of-the-Secretary/ELCA-Governance/Churchwide-Assembly/Schedule/Prayer/Bishops-Call.aspx>  Bishop's call to prayer

1.	Daily <http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Office-of-the-Secretary/ELCA-Governance/Churchwide-Assembly/Schedule/Prayer.aspx#daily>  prayer starting June 29.
2.	 <http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Office-of-the-Secretary/ELCA-Governance/Churchwide-Assembly/Schedule/Prayer.aspx#weekly> Weekly prayer with scripture readings taken from the daily lectionary of the assembly with reflection questions, a prayer and a refection hymn.
3.	 <http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Office-of-the-Secretary/ELCA-Governance/Churchwide-Assembly/Schedule/Prayer.aspx#sunday> Sunday prayers with a petition for the Prayers of Intercession for the Sundays from June 28 - Aug. 6 and one for each Aug. 16 and Aug. 23.

Synod Assembly

First some anecdotal comments I’ve received.

Zimmerman Dan small.jpgSarah Zimmerman, daughter of Pastor Dan Zimmerman (retired) sent me this photo. We recognized Pastor Z (whose wife passed away last year) for 55 years of ministry. He was ordained in June of 1954. He could not be at assembly, but his daughter Susan Kiel accepted it on his behalf. His youngest granddaughter, Samantha Schulenberg took the photo. It continuously amazes me how important it is to thank people. 

Pastor Marlin Wogstad (retired), who had just had his gall bladder out last week and is leading a group to Israel today said, “This is the best assembly I’ve ever attended.” I asked how many he had attended. “Oh, about a thousand.” 

Rob (who played John in the Four Gospels skit) wrote: 

I wanted to share with you the incredible amount of feedback I received on the genealogy drama – all positive. As I walked the Marriott ballroom and hallways on Thursday after the drama, and also on Friday, many synod attendees stopped me to share their thoughts. Sure, some wanted to say hi to “John”, but most wanted to pass on their thanks. This is what I heard over and over …

·         Who wrote that incredible script? I have to get a copy so our church can perform it for our members...

·         This drama was just what we needed at that point – something a bit light-hearted, but carrying a powerful message

·         It was such a joy to watch something so well done – perfectly chosen, focused, obviously rehearsed. Thank you so much for your effort…

Pastor Chris Lake wrote: “When I came to Texas  I had no idea how well things were going to come together.  I have felt such satisfaction with the church, my call and life and I just did not think it could get much better.  Until today. John Warner was my Sunday school teacher and soccer coach in Lubbock growing up.  He is now a member of a church in Katy and he was here today to talk about mission work in Peru.  I have not seen him in 25 years.  John was very important to me as a kid and his leaving the church to move to Katy was a real loss for me.  There we were student and teacher talking hugging and shocked to see the other.  It was time to go back to the meeting when John suggested we pray.  I agreed along with those who were with us.  John bowed his head but could not speak.  Tears.  It was then that the third person with us spoke up. Richard Brunk who was our pastor and the one who baptized me 30 year ago was also here today.  Pastor did a good job today and prayed for us and gave thanks for the joy of ministry and those we meet along the  way. I am stunned and moved to tears tonight.  I know that none of these men are perfect, but they are my people and past and to have them come together in this place is such affirmation for me that I can barely stand it.  This alone would have been enough for any day.  I got word from my parents who live in Lubbock and recently found a buyer for their house (this I knew). (What I did not know was) They put a contract on a house in Brenham and if all goes to plan will be here by July 1.  I really can't make sense of all this but it sure feel like something wonderful...”

Pastor Kathy Haueisen: “Excellent leadership through a very challenging issue. I think it all went well. Even the Hallway Buzz was upbeat and positive.”

My perspective

This synod assembly focused on evangelism, our top priority as a synod. It was not a training camp. We don’t necessarily have the evangelism teams, nor a significant slice of the congregation’s leaders. (Make no mistake, effective evangelism takes the whole congregation.) We’ll have some training at the Fall Leadership Event in a few months. 

Pastor Sean Ewbank kicked it off with a challenging sermon at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Sugarland. He interviewed hotel staff about their hopes and dreams, and incidentally asked them what a Lutheran was. (A majority had no idea at all and could not answer the question.) To the question about hope and dreams he got these kinds of responses:

·         I want my wife and kids to know they are safe and provided for.

·         I want to make a difference.

·         I want to reconcile with my family but I don’t know the first step.

·         I want to be sure of what God wants and then do that. But how do we know what God wants?

·         We (my husband and I) can’t have children so I want to adopt some children and give them a loving home.  But we don’t make much money and I wonder if anyone will let us adopt.  Do churches help connect kids who need parents with people who want to be parents?

·         Hopes and dreams?  S—t, I’m just going through the motions right now, barely getting from one day to another.  I have no hopes and dreams.  Wow.  Never really thought about this.  Where do I start?

·         Our nation to become a force for good again.  I can’t believe we actually tortured people.  Where the hell are you church people and your outrage while all this is going on?

·         When I die, I want people to know that I loved them and cared about them.

·         I want to do something good, something with meaning, something that lasts.

Evangelism is addressing people’s deep spiritual longings with the gospel. (Sean’s slides and other slide shows will be on the web page in the coming days.)

I made the case that we couldn’t keep doing what we’ve been doing and expect different results. I drew a line in the sand and said this year was going to be the first year we grow in worship attendance as a synod in the last eight years. Pastor Emmanuel Jackson challenged us to see leadership as evangelism – to be willing to consider unconventional ways of being the church, like the mean who dug a hole in the roof and let down the paralytic. Kerry Nelson talked about Stewardship as Evangelism. Steven Cauley and Karen Landahl helped us see justice as evangelism. 

A sub-theme was human sexuality since the statement and policy recommendations were out. Accordingly we had 20 resolutions. (Last year we had one.) This posed a challenge to the schedule. To deal with such a complex and emotional topic, we spend time the first day talking to one another in groups of four about what we’d experienced, where we’d received messages about sex as children, what we believed. The next day we discussed the topic informally in the large group. The last day we debated and voted. The resolution asking our synod assembly to memorialize churchwide assembly to require a 2/3 vote did not pass. The resolution to accept the social statement passed, as did the resolution to accept the ministry policies. It’s now in the hands of the churchwide assembly. What impressed me most is that people said what they needed to say, sometimes quite passionately, without resorting to low blows or personal attacks. This make my heart soar. Does this mean that we could learn to take on divisive issues in our congregations respectfully as well? One can only hope.

Our assembly weekend approved a resolution on justice in congregations, a resolution on becoming a Community of Respect and a resolution affirming our position of being open and welcoming to immigrants and refugees in our midst:

As Christians, we recall Old Testament teachings which challenged the Israelites to remember the time when they were “aliens” in the land of Egypt. 

By remembering, the Israelites were called to love the strangers in their midst as they loved themselves. 

In the New Testament, Jesus identifies with the stranger and emphasizes hospitality as one of the indispensable acts of discipleship.

Indeed God may be present in the guise of a stranger, bringing news that we can hear only through her or him. 

As we have received God’s mercy, so we are to extend God’s mercy to others. 

As Christians, God calls us to love immigrants and refugees, and to welcome them into our communities.

A number of people elected to various offices, including Evan Moilan, director of Lutherhill in LaGrange, who was elected Vice President of our synod. Erika Canham was thanked for her service as VP for the last four years, and Arwin Strehlow for being treasurer the last six years. Nancy Cook, Darrel Reimer and Dorothy Menke-Smith rotated off council. Mr. Reimer had served since 1998! We welcomed a new congregation: First Taiwanese, and a new pastor, Pastor Jeremy Shih

All in all, I felt a warm, generous spirit at this assembly. Thank you all. 

Galveston

Galveston Flagship Hotel.jpgAfter assembly I headed over to Galveston, to be with St. Paul’s as they had their closing worship Sunday morning. The area is coming along, but the effects of Ike are going to be quite evident for some time. Note the Flagship Inn is still closed with a gaping hole in the side, like a broken doll house. Houses were still being gutted. Piles of debris were still in neighborhoods. Bolivar Island is coming back (like Crystal Beach) but many neighborhoods are abandoned. And of course Gilchrist, where 1,000 people used to live is desolate.

Town and the seawall were absolutely packed with end-of-the-school-year reverie. But the looming anxiety of hurricane season which begins tomorrow could be tasted like the salt in the air. The Sunday paper’s lead article in the county section was about this.  http://galvnews.com/ There was particular interest in the odds of having another major event in Galveston this year. They’ve been keeping track since 1851 (about the time First, Galveston was organized as a congregation). So, there are 158 years, or hurricane seasons on record. In 144 of those years (90%), tropical storms or hurricanes appeared in the Gulf of Mexico. So the odds are high we’ll have some kind of event. Storms moved into the Western Gulf 99 of the 158, or 71%. But not all these turn into hurricanes. How often has Galveston been hit in the past? 35 of the 158 years (20%) Galveston had minor damage. 17 of the 158 years (10%) Galveston’s had moderate damage (like Jerry in ‘89 or Frances in ‘98). There have been nine major storms in Galveston since 1851 (6%). Those are 1867, 1875, 1900, 1915, 1943, 1909, 1961, 1983. In other words, there have never been two major events back to back. This doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. It just means it would be very rare, which for some people is the speck of hope they need to keep trying. 

St. Paul’s was a sad day. The primarily elderly group gathered for a final worship service. The carpet gone. The pews gone. The organ dead. The congregation aging. Pastor Sharon Burns graciously allowed the congregation to remain seated for hymns and most of the LBW, page 77 liturgy. Pastor Robert Berry (who served St. Paul’s from 1961 to 1990) and his wife Ruth came down from Huntsville, as well as his son Bobby from Cody, Wyoming. Pastor Burns preached a theological treatise on the Holy Spirit through Scripture. My throat started to hurt being in that building.

A congregational meeting last Sunday had decided the matter. The building would be sold to the Vineyard Church to whom they have been renting space, and the money would be divided between three charities: HIS Ministries, The Salvation Army and Memorial Lutheran Church in Texas City. I had hoped that they would allow us to make the building a retreat center. We need one on the island, but in our polity, congregations decide, so I respect their decision. I respected it even more when I met the Vineyard pastor. I’m allergic to mold. By the time we got to communion I wasn’t feeling good, so I wandered over to the other building where I found the pastor cramming for his service, which would follow theirs. 

Vineyard Pastor Ken Hanning grew up a Lutheran. He was confirmed by Larry Juull at St. Stephens in Pearland. “For a while,” he told me, “I walked away from God.” In time he ended up in Young Life, and the pastor at the Pearland Vineyard Church. When they decided to start a mission in Galveston, which he told me is 80% unchurched, he was chosen to do the planting. There are 16 Vineyard churches in the Houston area. When a new mission starts, they all chip in. Pearland, being the sponsoring church, agreed to pay Ken’s salary for one year. The Galveston Vineyard Church, now meeting at St. Paul’s Lutheran, was planted just before Ike. To grow a church from 0-60 in one year, while the population has declined by 20% is incredible. After a rocky start due to the storm, they are now at a worship attendance of 60, and his financial support has ended. Yet, they are making it. And buying St Paul’s. 

I could see why. As we got closer to the start of their service, young adults started showing up with guitars and drums. People approached me, shook hands and said hello. Little children began buzzing all over the place. There was a sense of expectation in the air. They had “it.” Pastor Ken told me we could use the building anytime. We also discussed the retreat center. His dad is a plumber. They’d already located the water mains and were planning to build an addition with showers. He has two groups already booked to come and stay there this summer. I said I thought I knew where we had a shower house he could use in the mean time and told him about how Christ the King, Kenner had used blow up mattresses. The conversation picked up speed, then I could see he remembered his sermon and looked nervously at his computer, so I took the cue and shook his hand. 

Galveston Cemetery.jpgGalveston Cemetery 2.jpg

I sensed a subtle irony and yet an appropriateness in closing a congregation on the birthday of the church. Like people, congregations have a life span. Though our outer nature is wasting away our inner nature is being renewed daily… I was particularly touched as we sang an old hymn:

                His oath, his covenant, his blood, sustain me in the raging flood.

                When all supports are washed away, he then is all my hope and stay.

                On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. 

The church is not a building. It is a community gathered around Christ. And not a Lutheran community. Let’s think about what we can do to support this little Vineyard Church, so they grow strong.

On our way out of town we stopped at the cemetery. Susan loves cemeteries, but this one told a story. Among the graves and the dead trees you can see in these photos, wildflowers were springing up everywhere. New life springing up all around the old. It was a metaphor for St. Paul’s. It reminded me of something Munib Younan (Lutheran Bishop of Jerusalem) had said, “Amidst the liturgies of death, we proclaim a gospel of life.”

The Trinity

Trinity cropped.JPGThe Trinity is the classical doctrine of Christian orthodoxy. I’ve used the analogy of my being a father, a son and a husband before, but that doesn’t really get at it fully. The classic doctrine says there are three persons (hypostases) and one being. I’ve also used the analogy of the apple having skin, fruit and core. I’ve used water, ice, steam. All of these analogies (metaphors? Similes?) are a bit sophomoric. They try to make simple what isn’t. They try to make clear what is, and always will be to us mortals, a mystery. The Mystery. God as transcendent, yet immanent. Cosmic, yet closer than your skin. Impossible to see, yet right before your eyes in plain sight. Spiritual, yet revealed in the material. 

The Athanasian  Creed says the Father is God, the Son is God and Holy Spirit is God and yet there not three Gods but one. It’s so much more fun to play with the first-person plural pronouns for YHWH in Genesis, and the Spirit hovering over the waters, and the Word that God speaks. It’s so much more fun to play with Paul, who precedes a fully-formed Trinitarian doctrine but can’t seem to talk about God without stumbling all over God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In phrases like:

·         Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." (Gal 4:6)

·         I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Eph. 1:17)

·         For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. (Eph 2:18)

·         …and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 1:4)

·         You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. (Rom. 8:9)

·         And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Rom 8:11)

·         15I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 15:15-16)

·         I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. (Rom 15:30)

·         And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (I Cor. 6:11)

·         You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (II Cor. 3:3)

·         May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (II Cor. 13:14)

And so many more. I love it. The Spirit  of Him who raised Jesus from the dead (Rom. 8:11). He doesn’t yet have a name for it yet, but he’s all over it.

But what to say to the people about the Trinity that matters. In short, as my homiletics professor used to write on our papers, “SO WHAT?”

If you want a catalyst for thought on the Trinity, consider reading The Shack. At 250 pages, if you’re a 50-pages/hour reader, find your favorite chair or eatery at 8 a.m. and you’ll be done by the time lunch is over. If you’re a 30-pages an hour reader it’s a day of reading, but well worth it. You won’t agree with everything, but it will make you think and more importantly spark your imagination. Remember, it’s fiction. It applies one view of the Trinity to a real-life situation. A touch of Gnosticism, but a no-holds-barred theology of the cross. I’ll eat my hat if you don’t write your best Trinity sermon afterwards. Eugene Peterson said, "When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize the result is a novel on the order of The Shack." rublev.jpg"This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good!" says the Regent College prof. Order it tonight (Sunday) and it’ll be here by Tuesday: Order it tonight and it will be here by Tuesday: http://www.amazon.com/Shack-William-P-Young/dp/0964729237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8 <http://www.amazon.com/Shack-William-P-Young/dp/0964729237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243823886&sr=1-1> &s=books&qid=1243823886&sr=1-1 .  There’s an answer to the “So what?” question in this book: It is that way. We need it that way. 

Jürgen Moltmann, the secular German POW who found God in a British POW camp after an American chaplain handed him a New Testament, talks about “the infinite ocean of the Godhead.” But he is quoting the mystics (in his Experiences of God). Albert Schweitzer talked about “the mysticism of the apostle Paul.”  We are using material language to describe a spiritual experience. But if you haven’t had the experience, the words fall flat. You can’t argue your way to the Trinity. You experience your way there. You experience the majesty of the God of the cosmos in the stars, the ocean, the mountains, the impossibleness of worlds 13 billion light years away. You experience incarnation in the eyes of a baby, the eyes of the suffering, the face of the stranger. You experience the Spirit moving in community, most clearly for me in the Communion of Saints, the Church, flawed as it is. Someone once said, “Jesus prayed for the Spirit, and God sent the Church.”

 For me these days the “So what?” has been tied up in community. Fellowship. Koinonia. God acts in community. God is community: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Jesus acts in community: the Twelve. When he ascends, Jesus leaves a community, and commands them to make more. Divinity is a team sport. Christianity is a team sport. Worship is a team sport. Service is a team sport. Loving (the greatest commandment) cannot be done in isolation. Love implies community. We are called to be together, and not just us, all of humanity is created to be in communion with God and neighbor. 

What if evangelism is about connecting people to Christian Community? Yes, it’s about connecting them to Christ, but this happens in community, wherever two or three are gathered in my name. Christ is made known in the disciples’ breaking the bread in Emmaus. God is about being in community, about being in loving community: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love.” We cannot know God outside of community, because we cannot know God without love, and love implies community. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God. For God is love.” God is not a doctrine. God is the love of the Father to the Son and the Son to the Spirit and the Godhead to humanity. “For God so loved the world…”

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him,

and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 

and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
–Matthew 3:16-17

שלומ سلام Peace,

Mike Rinehart 

Michael Rinehart, bishop

The Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

12707 I-45 North Frwy, Suite 580

Houston, TX 77060-1239                

281-873-5665

www.GulfCoastSynod.org <http://www.gulfcoastsynod.org/> 

Time after Pentecost 2009

June 14 – Pentecost 2B

 <http://www.textweek.com/history/1sam15_16.htm> 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13  – Samuel anoints David and the Spirit falls mightily upon him.

or  <http://www.textweek.com/prophets/ezek17.htm> Ezekiel 17:22-24 – I will dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. The high tree will be brought low, and the low high.
 <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm20.htm> Psalm 20  – Some take pride in horses and chariots, but our pride is in the name of the Lord God. 

or  <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm92.htm> Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15 - The righteous shall spread abroad like a cedar of Lebanon. (Ps. 92:11)
 <http://www.textweek.com/pauline/2cor5a.htm> 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17 – We walk by faith and not by sight, at home in the body and away from the Lord. 

 <http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/mark4a.htm> Mark 4:26-34 – The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which so small, yet grows and provides branches for the birds to make nests.

June 21 – Pentecost 3B

 <http://www.textweek.com/history/1sam17.htm> 1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49 – David and Goliath: The Lord who saved me from the lion and the bear will deliver me from this Philistibeatne.

or  <http://www.textweek.com/history/1sam17_18.htm> I Samuel 17:57 - 18:5, 10-16 – Jonathan loved David. Saul tries to kill David.
                or  <http://www.textweek.com/writings/job38b.htm> Job 38:1-11 – The Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind: Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
 <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm9.htm> Psalm 9:9-20  – The Lord judges the nations.

or  <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm133.htm> Psalm 133  – How good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.

or  <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm107.htm> Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32 - God stilled the storm and quieted the waves of the sea. (Ps. 107:29)
 <http://www.textweek.com/pauline/2cor6.htm> 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 – Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation. We have endured beatings, riots, hunger, imprisonment…
 <http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/mark4b.htm> Mark 4:35-41 – Jesus asleep in the boat, wakes and calms the sea: Peace. Be still.

June 28 – Pentecost 4B

 <http://www.textweek.com/history/2sam1.htm> 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27  – David mourns for Saul, the glory of Israel, and for Jonathan: Your love to me surpassed the love of women.

or  <http://www.textweek.com/apocrypha/wisdom1_2.htm> Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23-24 – God did not make death. God does not delight in death. Death came into the world through the devil.
Psalm 130  - I will exalt you, O LORD, because you have lifted me up. (Ps. 30:1) 

or  <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm30.htm> Psalm 30  – God’s anger is for a moment; his favor for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes in the morning.

or  <http://www.textweek.com/prophets/lament3c.htm> Lamentations 3:23-33 – The steadfast love of the lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.

 <http://www.textweek.com/pauline/2cor8.htm> 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 – During a severe ordeal of affliction, the Macedonians joy and poverty overflow in a wealth of generosity.

 <http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/mark5.htm> Mark 5:21-43 – Inclusio: Jairus’ daughter and the woman with the 12-year hemorrhage. 

July 5 – Pentecost 5B

 <http://www.textweek.com/history/2sam5.htm> 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10  – The elders make a covenant with David and anoint him. 

or  <http://www.textweek.com/prophets/ezek2.htm> Ezekiel 2:1-5 – Call of Ezekiel: Whether they hear or not, they shall know a prophet has been among them.
 <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm48.htm> Psalm 48 – The city of Zion is established forever.

or  <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm123.htm> Psalm 123 - Our eyes look to you, O God, until you show us your mercy. (Ps. 123:3)
  <http://www.textweek.com/pauline/2cor12.htm> 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 – Paul’s out of body experience, and his thorn in the flesh. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 
 <http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/mark6a.htm> Mark 6:1-13 – A prophet is not without honor except in his own country. Jesus sends the twelve two-by-two.

July 12 – Pentecost 6B

 <http://www.textweek.com/history/2sam6.htm> 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 – David dances before the ark in a linen ephod. 

or  <http://www.textweek.com/prophets/amos7.htm> Amos 7:7-15 – Amos’ vision: God sets a plumb line amist the people of Israel
 <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm24.htm> Psalm 24  – The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.

or  <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm85.htm> Psalm 85:8-13  - I will listen to what the LORD God is saying. (Ps. 85:8)
 <http://www.textweek.com/pauline/eph1a.htm> Ephesians 1:3-14 – The sentence that never ends: Blessed be God who chose us before the foundation of the world, destined us for adoption, as a plan for the fullness of time to gather all things in him…
 <http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/mark6b.htm> Mark 6:14-29 – Herod, Herodias and John the Baptist’s head on a platter.

July 19 – Pentecost 7B

 <http://www.textweek.com/history/2sam7b.htm> 2 Samuel 7:1-14a – David wants to build God’s house, but God will establish David’s house, his offspring.

or  <http://www.textweek.com/prophets/jer23a.htm> Jeremiah 23:1-6 – Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! The days are coming when I will raise up from David a righteous branch.
  <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm89.htm> Psalm 89:20-37 – I anointed my servant David, and my hand will always be with him.

or  <http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm23.htm> Psalm 23 - The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. (Ps. 23:1)
  <http://www.textweek.com/pauline/eph2b.htm> Ephesians 2:11-22  – You uncircumcized were once strangers to the covenant, without hope, without God. You who were far off have been brought near. He has abolished the law with its commands and ordinances, that he might create one humanity out of two. No longer strangers. 
  <http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/mark6c.htm> Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 – Jesus to his disciples: “Come away to a deserted place and rest for a while.” 

Hymns: No Longer Strangers (David Haas, from Gather)

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