Lent V, March 18: Surrender to God (Morag Smith)

"That was dumb." "Boy, I wasn't thinking when I did that." "And that's when I really #$%^ed up." I've only said the latter to my boss once, but it was a major mistake. Carelessness, lack of knowledge, overconfidence, and so on lead us into making mistakes all the time. As a professional, I've been taught the best thing is to admit the mistake and figure out how to fix it. In the short run my pride doesn't want to admit I failed professionally, but I've learned that confessing and then repairing the damage is almost always the least painful thing to do in the long run. Further, until I am willing to say I didn't know enough or wasn't careful enough, I am not able to learn from my mistake and will make it repeatedly. The most respected of my colleagues are the ones who don't need to protect their pride and instead can admit their mistakes and in doing so create trusting relationships where everyone is learning to do things better.

Do we practice admitting our failures to God? We can hide some of our failures from other people, but God's nature doesn't give us the option of hiding them from Him. He knows what happened so not admitting to it doesn't make us look better to Him. It can only increase the damage we're doing to our relationship with Him. Why then is it so hard to admit to God that we failed? Perhaps one part is that acknowledging our failures, our sins, to God hits us right at our weakest point, our pride. We were made in His image, but are not Him. Every admitted sin emphasizes the gap between God and us and between us and our images of ourselves.

The Pharisee hid behind his pride and avoided seeing the distance between him and God. The tax collector could set aside his pride and ask "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!". Acknowledging the gap between God and us, acknowledging that I am a sinner, is the opening God uses to "be merciful." Until we surrender our pride and instead offer it to God, we continue to turn away from his mercy. When we finally offer ourselves to God, He reflects our small offering in His great offering of His Son to mend the damage to our relationship with Him. 

When we "offer…our selves, our souls and bodies" including our pride to God, we open ourselves to God's mercy. We allow God to work through us to create His Kingdom. 

Activities and Prayer for this Week

‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’ (Luke 18:10-14 )

We are called to surrender our pride and our self to God’s will and work.
Discuss the points of interest to you, and your group.
Our pride (hubris) can keep us from full relationship with God. As a group think of ways that the corporate culture of the Diocese of the Rio Grande might be prideful. As individuals think of ways in which your own pride could be an obstacle to loving God fully.
Write these sins on paper and offer them to God in prayer, and/or by burning them.
Prayer: Blessed God, you ask us to humble ourselves and to be aware of our sins. As individuals and as a group, we acknowledge that we have not always been honest about our sins. We here offer those that we have identified. Take them and all others and be merciful. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Share: Comment on this post here or on Facebook, to share  ways that the diocese might be guilty of pride that you, or your group, identified. 

Lent IV: March 11: God's Heart Loves (Elaine Wilson)

Since Advent, the Sunday scriptures, heard by Episcopalians and many other denominations, are grouped into Lectionary Year B. The focus is on Mark, the earliest of the gospels and the account closest in time to the life of Jesus. Those encountering Jesus carried the stories, passed them on verbally over and over, and finally compiled them into the first of the written gospels. By the time Mark was organizing his work, Christians were determined to have hearing recipients recognize that the man known as Jesus was to be known as The Christ, the true Son of God, who totally shared human life.

In the earliest stage of organizing thoughts about the activities of Jesus, Mark or his scribe probably etched Greek words into wax coating of a wooden slab, the first century notepad. To give them permanence, Mark’s thoughts were transferred to papyrus, the paper of the ancient world. By the time the theology of the early Christians had evolved into the trinitarian understanding that Jesus was not just a human son emanating from a separate supreme being, but was actually truly one with God, Mark’s text became incorporated into a collection of pages bound together. The earliest form of our books today was visually differentiated from the long strips of joined papyrus that formed rolled Hebrew scrolls. From this beginning, Christian scriptures we call the New Testament were obviously different from Hebrew texts. With this change, God’s good news gained new life and was ready to reach out and gather in a whole world. 

In reflecting on how Mark’s message came to us, we must not miss the reason for our four Bible gospels: Gospels are good news telling us of the love of God for all of us. And God’s love is the basis of the unity all of us have in prayerfully living in the Diocese of the Rio Grande today.

In our Come Follow Me Study this week, you will find the meaning of God’s love in the words of Mark 14:6-9 by reading the New Revised Standard Version aloud twice. By making a gender change, you will be challenged to think about how we become conditioned to understanding Bible language that may limit the undergirding meaning of biblical texts.

#1

But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’

From this passage where Jesus interacts with a woman, let us consider how our thoughts may change, if we have Jesus speaking to a man.

#2

But Jesus said, ‘Let him alone; why do you trouble him? He has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. He has done what he could; he has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what he has done will be told in remembrance of him.’

From the first century onward, Mark’s writing was meant to provoke Christians to understand that Jesus, who we as Trinitarians believe was truly God living among us, was the pivotal change agent for all of human history. Shifting past Old Testament expectations to a clear, new vision, Mark’s Jesus tells us to see the unlimited good possibilities for us in listening to and following Jesus. We serve God by joining Jesus and continuing the work of bringing the good news to our human world. And the good news about Jesus is all-inclusive. 

Mark’s message is a guide we should heed. At this moment in the life of the Diocese of the Rio Grande, all of us, female and male, named and unnamed, are called to leave the past behind and to welcome the new opportunities that are to come. Now, by each of our actions in the body of the Diocese of the Rio Grande, our service following the example of Jesus will be remembered. We will honor God together, as we thank Bishop Vono and welcome our new leader to guide us in proclaiming the good news to the whole world.

Activities and Prayer for this Week

But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’ (Mark 14:6-9)

Jesus reminds us that sometimes what we think unimportant is the most important of all.

Discuss the points of interest to you, and your group.
There are many needs across the Diocese of the Rio Grande. As an individual, or group, identify some of these. Are their ways in which those with what we consider needs or problems can minister to us? 
Make a collage of the things that the ‘needy’ can offer to the world. 

Prayer: Blessed God, we know that you care for each person. Help us to have our eyes open to their needs, their gifts, their hopes, so that we can see all people with your eyes of love. Let us be open to what each person offers. Amen.
Share: Comment on this post or Facebook to share one or 2 of the ways the diocese is ministered to which you, or your group, identified. You could also post a photo of your collage.

Lent III, March 4: God’s Passion Strengthens Us (Dale Plummer+)

In our asking for God’s blessings upon the “gifts and creatures of bread and wine,” we are immediately united into the remembrance of Christ’s “blessed passion and precious death.” Our liturgy uses these words “passion” and “precious” to describe such a horrific torturous event. The strength to endure such torture must be beyond our own ability, but for God, God’s passion and strength is everlasting love and hope of a precious relationship with creation. God’s display of love and hope of preciousness seems to be beyond our total acceptance. For we so quickly return to our worldly presence just as swiftly as we entered into remembrance of Christ. 

In this third week of Lent, God’s strength and passion is presented to the Israelites in legalistic means found in the Exodus reading of the Ten Commandments. Here God’s relationship with humanity is demonstrated through laws of order to establish a right relationship. When the order is broken God’s response is explained in terms of wrath and anger. The question I ask, Is this the result of humanity making laws into idols, and our blindness to God’s passion and precious strength is interpreted as wrath and anger, and freedom from slavery and idolatry is too risky.

In my own journey, I am aware of my own passions by the words I use and the tone of my voice. I am also aware that the same words and tone also display anger. Passion and anger must have similar interior origins, so how do we concede the difference between passion and anger? The only response I have for certain is, “I know it, because I feel it.”

In John’s Gospel this week we reflect upon the story of Jesus encounter in the temple which has been transformed into a marketplace and taken over by money changers. As we visualize this encounter we hear Jesus order all these things to be removed as he goes about overturning tables and scattering the coins of the money changers. Hearing this encounter, do we rush to a conclusion that this is a display of Jesus’ anger rather than a witnessing Jesus’ passion that his Father’s house is to be a house of prayer and not a marketplace, and ultimately, the temple we seek is the temple of the risen Christ, for whom we “await his coming in glory.”

Activities and Prayer for this Week

He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40: 29-31 )

God promises that ‘those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength’.

• Discuss the points of interest to you, and your group.
• Each ministry strengthens the total ministry of the diocese. Consider how God empowers your ministry, both individually and corporately, for the upbuilding of the Diocese of the Rio Grande.
• Send a note or card to another parish in the diocese recognizing one of their important ministries.

Pray for the Diocese using the list of churches on the diocesan website,
or the list of diocesan ministries.
Prayer: Holy God, we lift up to you all the churches and ministries in the Diocese of the Rio Grande. Strengthen them so that they may not grow faint or weary in their work for your glory. We name especially (name the churches or ministries of the Diocese). In the Name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Share: Comment on this post on the website or Facebook toshare parish ministries you, or your group, identified as important.

Lent 2: February 25: Acknowledging our Gifts (Linda White)

You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. (John 15:16-17)

I’m reminded of the advice sometimes given for how to pray:  Think of your conversation with God as you might think of a conversation with a friend.  Hence, as I think about the gifts of God, I think about other gift-giving situations.  As children, we get to be gift-receivers, first.  We revel in the toys, the books, the box of animal crackers bestowed upon us by loving family and friends.  With passing time, we learn to say “thank you” (and not, one hopes, amending, “I already have one of these.”)  Add two or three years, we start to think of gifts we can give—a hand-drawn picture for mom, a game we can play with little brother.  And nobody gives more earnest thought to gift-giving than an 8- or 9-year-old with just a little money and the desire to give pleasure to all the people she loves.  Of course, for clueless grandparents, a gift card for a teenage grandson is always the perfect gift.

 Later, we begin to think about the responsibilities entrusted to one who receives gifts. How would we want that teenager to use the gift card?  Taking his pals out for pizza would be very gratifying to grandma.  Is that, perhaps, how the Lord feels about the gifts He gives us?  Does He want us to use the gifts He gives to benefit others—at least some of the time?

 As a public-school counselor, I saw one of my jobs as helping young people to discern their gifts.  Oh, we didn’t put it that way—“discernment” is not a word often heard in a middle school. (And it occurs to me, a digression here, that we probably make a mistake in calling some kids “gifted and talented”—aren’t they all, in some way?)  Figuring out “what we want to be when we grow up” is a task that many of us pursue for most of our lives.  Indeed, “self-actualization,” is a secular term that still has profound theological meaning, I think.

 Isn’t that what the Lord expects from us?  I believe He expects (demands?) that we figure out who we are, what we can do, what He has given to us to give back to the world.  And let’s not have any false modesty here; we all know we have talents and skills; and we know that those skills are not just the result of meandering molecules. What can account for Mozart, if not a belief in an all-gracious God?  But does that mean God loved Mozart more than He loves the rest of us?  The heartfelt answer is certainly, “No.”

 What, then, can we say to this?  Our talents and gifts may not blaze a trail across the universe, but there are too many needs in our world and our diocese for us to shirk in our responsibility to use God’s gifts wisely. We are embarking on a new adventure in the DRG.  At times we may feel relaxed and smug; at times we may feel like Max, sailing off to the land of the Wild Things.  Whatever our level of confidence, whatever our fears or misgivings, we who are blessed to live in this abundant land must look inward, bringing our best resources to serve the needs of our Christian families, and truly, the needs of our entire universe.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  (Galatians 6:9)

Activities and Prayers

 Jesus calls us to bear fruit in love. 

• Discuss the points of interest to you, and your group. 
• Look in a mirror and see God’s reflection. In your group, give each person a small note pad. Share the gifts you each bring to ministry in the Diocese of the Rio Grande.
• Light a candle in the center of your group. After the prayer,  have each person light a wooden match from the candle to tie to the pad with the list of gifts. Use it throughout the week as a reminder of the importance of shared gifts and ministry. 

Prayer: Give thanks for the work of ministry in the Diocese and for your place in it, or use this prayer:

Thank you, Living God, for the gifts you have given to each of us to bear fruit in ministry. We thank you for (here name each person and their gifts). May we each continue to grow in your service and to bear more and more fruit for ministry in the Diocese of the Rio Grande. Amen.

• Share gifts you, or your group, bring to the work of the Diocese (you can do this as a confidential list by just listing the gifts without specific names, or by just using first names)--if you want to do so via comments on this website or the Women's Ministry Facebook page. 

Lent I, February 18: Come to Jesus (Cindy Davis)

Welcome to this two and half month journey of preparation and prayer across the diocese leading up to the Electing Convention on May 5. We currently have over 2 dozen who have signed up to get the weekly meditation online, and others who have requested a hard copy. I’m sure there are some who have downloaded their own copy and will be checking the Women’s Ministry website for the meditations. Please invite friends to join you in prayer for the diocese, even if you do not do anything more than read the meditation and pray the prayer in the study guide.

Today’s Bible citation is from Matthew. It is a familiar one. Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you; and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ (Matthew 11:28-30)
Even though it is a familiar Bible verse, we aren’t very familiar with yokes in 21^st Century America, so this may not be an easy image to relate to. I like to look at the root of words because sometimes that offers an insight you don’t get from the basic definition of a word. “Yoke” traces back to a Latin word jungere which means ‘to join’. So, a yoke is something that joins things. Usually it is 2 animals, generally oxen, but it can also join the top of a piece of clothing to the rest of the garment and even (this I didn’t know) be the soft iron between the poles of an electromagnet.
Jesus was referring to the common usage of yoking 2 oxen together. In Bible times oxen were used for farming. They were very useful for plowing the, often rocky, ground of Israel because they are strong and able to work long hours pulling a plow or other farm equipment. There is, I understand, an art to yoking 2 beasts together. In fact, oxen typically are trained to be either the nigh (left-side) or off (right-side) ox and don’t do well with switching sides. When training oxen, a younger one is yoked with a well-trained ox. When the youngster tries to take off on his own, the old and wiser ox keeps him in place and moving forward. Generally, the farmer directs the oxen with voice commands while walking beside them.
Jesus invites us to ‘take my yoke and learn from me’. We are invited to be joined to Jesus on our Christian journey. As the wiser One, Jesus can keep us on track when we want to go off on our own. Jesus promises, “you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Sharing the job with Jesus means that we don’t have to do it all ourselves. Being yoked with Jesus means we don’t have to be ‘carrying heavy burdens’. We can trust that God is in control because God is walking beside us giving direction.
As we prepare for the election and welcome of our next Bishop it is the perfect time to look at how we as individuals, congregations, and a diocese can be yoked to Jesus and find joint ministry with God.
Over the next several weeks we’ll be looking at what we are currently doing; and think about things we might do better or change as we prayerfully prepare for our new chief pastor.
This week, I invite you to identify some concerns you may have about the life and ministry of the Diocese of the Rio Grande. You can share your thoughts with others in your small groups; or start a conversation here on the Women’s Ministry website or on the Facebook page.
If you want to download the study guide, you can do it here. You will also find the suggested activities and prayers below each week. 

Activities and Prayers

• Discuss the points of interest to you, and your group.
• Make a list of what you, and your group, think are the major cares and/or concerns of Diocese of the Rio Grande. Have each person identify no more than 3 concerns that weigh heaviest on your heart.
• Activity: Give each person a 6” length of string or ribbon. Tie a knot for each of the three concerns you identified. Pray for these three things every day this week.

The Knots Prayer (revised):
Dear God, please untie the knots that are in the minds and hearts of the men and women of the Diocese of the Rio Grande. Remove the have nots, the can nots, and the do nots that we have allowed into our mind. Erase the will nots, may nots, might nots that can find a home in our hearts. Release each of us from the could nots, would nots, and should nots that obstruct our life as a diocesan community. And most of all, dear God, remove from our minds, heart, and lives all of the ‘am nots’ that we allow to hold us back. Amen (original author known to God)

• Share one or 2 of the concerns you, or your group, identified as important Share one or 2 of the concerns you, or your group, identified as important-if you want to do so via the website or Facebook page.

Come Follow Me Study

As you know, the diocese has entered the process to call a new Bishop in 2018. Please pray for members of the Search Committee, and Transition Team. You can keep up with the search process on the diocesan website. And  download the litany of prayer for the search, written by Kathleen Pittman of Roswell.

Come Follow Me: As part of this process, the Women's Ministry and Transition Teams are teaming up to offer Come Follow Me, a series of meditations and activities for small groups or individuals. As we pray and study together as women and men of the diocese, we will be better prepared to elect our new Bishop on May 5.

Each Sunday, starting February 18, a meditation will be posted online to supplement the study guide. You can also sign up to get the study in your email by emailing wdrgstudy@gmail.com and asking to sign up.  
The Come Follow Me study can be downloaded, and a copy can be mailed if you contact Cindy and request it.

Form a small group in your parish or family or current Bible study to join in this opportunity to deepen our community.