Leanne Shawler, Artist

Last time I wrote about the lectionary it was for last Sunday’s gospel and the gospel from about three Sundays before that. Blogging about the lectionary is really struggling with what the Gospels are really saying, especially when I find it hard to understand or implement.  So when I read today’s Gospel   (Matthew 18:21-35) and Jesus saying we must forgive “seventy times seven” and then his hyperbolic parable about a debt that's impossible to incur let alone repay, perhaps to represent an unforgivable sin? … I struggled with what seemed to me to be an impossible ask laid out in this part of the gospel: to forgive unconditionally — even though that’s more or less what I pray for each time I say The Lord’s Prayer. It's what Christians are supposed to do. Today’s sermon by Rev. Daniel Pearson helped immensely in this — and I was particularly struck by a story that he told about a friend who referred to Desmond Tutu talking about forgiveness from the heart and ...

Who do you say I am? (Matthew 16:15) That's from the lectionary  of three weeks ago that I never got around to writing about. This might end up a bit of a series, personal reflections on these questions. I invite you to join me in them. (Take your time with them. I have.) Who do I say Jesus is? (And the corollary is: and do my actions reflect that?) What does the Cross mean to me?  Why the Church? Who do I say Jesus is? And is it different from who I say God  is? (Inasmuch as I know who God is anyway...) I say Jesus is Beloved and Lover. What I mean is that Jesus as the Son of the living God, is the embodiment of God's unconditional love ( chesed - loving kindness). He loves us, he listens to us, he comforts us. I was going to say more than this, share my history of how my view of Jesus has changed over the years: from this divine guy who pats the heads of children but is distant, to the brief period where I claimed him as mortal prophet on...

Given that I've missed two weeks of blogging the lectionary (sometimes the questions raised take more than a week to untangle--presumably ordained priests work this out in seminary, or before they get there or something), here's something a little light-hearted. Things I Learned in August: 1) Scones in Australia are biscuits in the U.S. (biscuits in Australia are cookies in the U.S.; scones in the U.S. are pretty close to rock cakes in Australia). How long have I been living in this country before I figured this out? 2) I experimented with not liking any post on Facebook for a couple of weeks. My newsfeed reduced the appearance of Pages that I follow (but didn't "like") although there was still sufficient past likeage, I guess that they didn't disappear. So if I wanted to "like" something, I would comment. I would not have said this resulted in deeper conversations, but it felt more connected. If I didn't like anyone's post who likes to...