"Lord, teach us to pray...." Love's Forgetfulness

"Why do you keep talking about my past mistakes?" said the husband. "I thought you had forgiven and forgotten."

"I have indeed, forgiven and forgotten," said the wife. "But I want to make sure you don't forget that I have forgiven and forgotten."

Sinner: "Remember not my sins, O Lord!"

Lord: "What sins? You'll have to prod my memory. I forgot them long ago."

Love keeps no record of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13).

(Anthony de Mello, The Song of the Bird, page 123)

Love One Another - Brian

Sabbath Rest

Tuesday is the weekly Sabbath for the John 13:34 Blog. Thanks for checking in. Come back tomorrow for more adventures and reflections. In the meantime....

Love One Another - Brian

The Circus Story and the Example to Love One Another

Jesus said: "As the Father has sent me so I send you..... Abide in my love.....Love One Another" The following story, recalled by a young man, has been around for a long time. I thought it went well with the first portion of Sunday's Gospel lesson from John 20.

"Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus. Finally, there was only one family between us and the ticket counter. 

"This family made a big impression on me. There were eight children, all probably under the age of 12. You could tell they didn’t have a lot of money. Their clothes were not expensive, but they were clean.

"The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line, two-by- two behind their parents, holding hands. They were excitedly jabbering about the clowns, elephants and other acts they would see that night. One could sense they had never been to the circus before. It promised to be a highlight of their young lives. The father and mother were at the head of the pack standing proud as could be.

"The mother was holding her husband’s hand, looking up at him as if to say, “You’re my knight in shining armor.” He was smiling and basking in pride, looking at her as if to reply, “You got that right.”

"The ticket lady asked the father how many tickets he wanted. He proudly responded, “Please let me buy eight children’s tickets and two adult tickets so I can take my family to the circus.”

"The ticket lady quoted the price. The man’s wife let go of his hand, her head dropped, the man’s lip began to quiver. The father leaned a little closer and asked, “How much did you say?”

"The ticket lady again quoted the price. The man didn’t have enough money. How was he supposed to turn and tell his eight kids that he didn’t have enough money to take them to the circus?

"Seeing what was going on, my dad put his hand into his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill and dropped it on the ground. (We were not wealthy in any sense of the word!) My father reached down, picked up the bill, tapped the man on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, sir, this fell out of your pocket.”

"The man knew what was going on. He wasn’t begging for a handout but certainly appreciated the help in a desperate, heartbreaking, embarrassing situation. He looked straight into my dad’s eyes, took my dad’s hand in both of his, squeezed tightly onto the $20 bill, and with his lip quivering and a tear streaming down his cheek, he replied, “Thank you, thank you, sir. This really means a lot to me and my family.”

"My father and I went back to our car and drove home. We didn’t go to the circus that night, but we didn’t go without."

Jesus said, "All will know that you are my disciples if you love one another."

Brian

The Weekly Round-Up for April 6, 2013

Baseball returned this week and our Cleveland Indians broke from the gate with two convincing wins over the highly favored Toronto Blue Jays. Hope springs eternal but was soon dashed with two losses that probably, more likely, showed the true character, and make-up, of this year's team. Even at .500, it is still great to hear the "crack of the bat", a fast ball "popping" the catcher's glove, and the voice of Tom Hammond calling a game on the radio. Nothing like baseball.

The Weekly Round-Up begins now....

Commentary: "American Winter" Families Struggle to Survive Fall from Middle Class (npr.com)

Commentary: Courting Cowardice on Same-Sex Marriage (New York Times)

Commentary: The Top 8 Ways To Be "Traditionally Married" According to the Bible - Not What You Think (upworthy.com)

Commentary: Freedom Loses One (New York Times)

Commentary: Jimmy Carter vs. the SBC/Driscoll/Victoria’s Secret: A Sea Change? (sojo.net)

Inspirational: Food Is A Sacred Gift, Not A System (TEDtalk)

Inspirational: 9 Power Quotes for Times of Struggle (marcandangel.com)

In Memoriam: Rabbi Herschel Schacter - He Cried to the Jews of Buchenwald "You Are Free" (New York Times)

Technology: Computers and Quantum Mechanics

Literature: Eighteen Words that Should Never Have Gone Out of Style (deathandtaxesmag.com)

Education: A Teacher's Open Letter About His Retirement and the State of Education in America (syrcause.com)

Maps: What Your State Is Good At and What It Is Lame At (upworthy.com)

Music: Orchestra Musician: It's Not A Cush Job (brianlauritzen.com)

Music: 11 Facts About Music Education (dosomething.org)

Music: Opera and Elitism (thebitingpoint.com)

Music: The Case for Active Practicing (ovationpress.com)

Parenting: The Camp Counselor vs. The Intern (New York Times)

Sports: We Need More Courageous Voices Like Dean Smith (Winston Salem Journal)

Pope Francis: "I'll Stay at the Guesthouse" (sojo.net)

Pope Francis: Foot Washing Final Straw for Traditionalists (yahoo.com)

Religion: All Is Quiet on the God Front (sojo.net)

Religion: This Week in God (Rachel Maddow)

Religion: Resurrection as Metaphor (huffingtonpost.com)

Religion: The Communal Resurrection of Jesus (huffingtonpost.com)

Religion: Easter is Coming (youtube.com)

Religion: A Relentless Faith (sojo.net)

Love One Another - Brian

Bracketology 2013 (Second Week)

Well.... who would have thought that going into the final weekend of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament the Final Four would consist of Louisville, Michigan, Syracuse and Witchita State!

Holy Upset....Batman!

I do not know about your Brackets, but mine are "toast". So I guess I will cheer for Syracuse (just can't root for Michigan) and Louisville. This way on Monday night I am delighted whoever wins the game.

But "Bracket-mania" is alive and well in the Community of Saint John tournament. Here is a complete list of participants and the points they have collected up until this point. It is still anybody's Tournament to win because eight folks have selected Louisville to win it all and one person went so far as to choose Witchita State!

Kathy S. 174 pts
Tyler S. 172 pts
Michelle O. (2) 170 pts
Barb. D. (2) 158 pts
Alex N. 152 pts
Dan C. 146 pts
Barb D. (4) 146 pts
Brian S. 144 pts
Cam O. (2) 142 pts
Lund Family 140 pts
Clark W. 138 pts
Cam O. (1) 138 pts
Tg N. 134 pts
Melinda N. 134 pts
Barb D. (1) 128 pts
Barb D. (3) 124 pts
Michelle O. (1) 122 pts
GailMarie F. 120 pts
Susie S. 114 pts
John H. 112 pts
Brian M. 106 pts

Remember..... all monies go to local charities. The Winner decides the beneficiary. A great weekend of Basketball ahead of us and AWESOME worship at the Community of Saint John this Sunday at 10:00 am.

Love One Another - Brian

Forty-Five Years Ago....Martin Luther King, Jr.

Forty-five years ago today, Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered by an assassin’s bullet on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. It was King’s dream to counter

violence with nonviolence and that there should be dignity offered to all men, women and children regardless of the color of their skin.

On this anniversary, in a nation that is consumed by gun violence and seemingly oblivious to the growing percentage of poor persons, including 16 million children, I hope you will take a moment and read again, King’s vision. While the dream lives on, there is still much work to be done.

“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of

great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom rng from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Love One Another - Brian

Sabbath Rest

Tuesday is the weekly Sabbath for the John 13:34 Blog. Thanks for checking in. Back at it again tomorrow. Meantime, I will be taking in some Opening Day Baseball with the Tribe!

Monday of Easter Week

There are 50 days in the Easter Season - Live Like IT!

Love One Another - Brian