4^th week after Pentecost: Abby.

Wine to gladden our hearts.

(Psalm 104:15)

Today you turn twenty-one. Why is that such a big birthday? Well, because you’ve reached the age whereby it is legal to drink alcohol. I wish I could share your first drink with you; or, at least, your first legal drink. A Psalm comes to mind (Ps 104):

God makes plants for us to cultivate—

                bringing forth food from the earth:

wine to gladden our hearts,

                and bread to sustain us.

Bread to sustain us and wine to gladden our hearts. The Psalm acknowledges that wine has an effect on us. It has a way of lifting our hearts. So, Papa’s first advice is never to drink beyond the point of gladness. That would be an abuse of God’s good gift. My second advice, is never to drink alone. Like all God’s gifts, it’s best when shared with people we love—like when your parents, aunts and uncles, and Papa and Grammy share a glass of wine on the deck at sunset.

Bread and Wine… what else does that remind you of? It’s the Table our Lord desirers to share with us. He never drinks alone. It’s the meal of grace and wonder, of joy and fellowship. May every glass be something like That Glass Jesus shares with us.

4^th week after Pentecost:

There shall once more be heard

the voice of the bridegroom

and the voice of the bride.

(Jeremiah 33:10-11)

Saturday evening, Linda and I joined in a wedding celebration. Like the wedding at Cana of Galilee, this wedding too was held in the backyard of a spacious and beautiful home—the home of the bride.

When someone asked how it was that we were invited. Another explained, “Leron is Gary’s friend.” The bride was Gary’s granddaughter—the daughter of his daughter. Together, we had seen her from time to time—at a regional gymnastics event where we marveled at her courage. Later, when Gary was becoming less than Gary, we went together to watch her compete under the lights at a major High School soccer tournament. And now, we gather, without Gary, to join in this, her wedding day. Like me, but even more so, Gary would have marveled at her grace and beauty—at the sound of her voice.

When “the voice of the bride and bridegroom could no longer be heard in the land” (Jer 7:34, 16:9, 25:10) due to the scourge of pestilence and war; the prophet Jeremiah told of a day when “there shall once more be heard the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride” (33:10-11). It was a magical evening—a rehearsal for the great wedding feast that awaits us: “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Rv 19:9). Gary will be there.

4^th Sunday after Pentecost:

When the fullness of time had come,

God sent his Son, born of a woman,

born under the law, 

in order to redeem those who were under the law…

God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,

crying, “Abba! Father!”

(Galatians 4:4-7)

Notice how our Christian calendar follows this paragraph from Galatians (Ga 4:4-7):

      Advent:            “When the fullness of time had come.”

      Christmastide:  “God sent his Son, born of a woman.”

      Epiphany:         “Born under the law.”

      Lent to Easter: “To redeem those who were under the law.”

      Pentecost:         “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.”

That’s the Gospel Story about “the power of God unto salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Ro 1:16). A Gospel both for the Jews, who had the Law of Moses; and, for everyone else who had some notion of law written on their hearts. Both the big Law and the little law failed to do what only the Gospel could do: 1) to free us from sin and the law (Ro 8:2); and 2) to free us for speaking, in spite of ourselves, our very own “Dear Father…” (Ga 4:7 & Ro 8:5), just like Jesus who prayed, “Abba, Father…” (Mk 14:36). It’s “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ that sets us free” (Ro 8:2). That’s Pentecost.

3^rd week after Pentecost: Wildness

A wild animal may trample things.

(Job 39:15)

Two of our grandchildren suffered sting ray bites to the bottom of their foot. Blood gushed out. They limped across the sand towards the ocean house with anguish and pain, even tears. We learned the routine. Daddy brings out tub after tub of hot, hot water, in which to place his daughter’s bleeding bitten foot while the poison continues to make its way up the wounded leg. Within two hours the poison subsides, and the pain becomes bearable.

That’s the thing about creation—it is wild and dangerous. It’s nothing like Grizzly River Run at Disneyland that only pretends to be scary. Real things have risk. You can get hurt in the ocean. You get hurt in life—real life with its complex relationships and multiple demands. Reality humbles us.

That’s what happened to Job when God showed up and laid before him the wonders and wildness of His Creation: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? …When the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?” And then God speaks of the wildness of his creatures: the wild ass, and wild ox, and wild ostrich, and wild animals that run around and trample things (Jb 38-41).

In spite of creation’s dangers, we made our way back into the ocean. Only this time, we were not so sure of ourselves. Who knows what lurks beneath the waves? We learned the sting ray shuffle where by you shuffle your feet in hopes you won’t step on one. Owen said Papa already had the sting ray shuffle. Maybe that is at least something of what the Bible means when it speaks of “the fear of the Lord.” There’s no more strutting around. Like Jacob of old, there is a strange limp in our walk (Gn 32:31).

3^rd Week after Pentecost:

We ourselves… groan.

(Romans 8:23)

Our family time at the beach ended with some strange inexplicable groaning. It had to do with our older grandchildren, one after another, holding me close with groans and tears. The only words we could come up with was “I love you.” Since this blog is for my children and my children’s children (Maybe others look on from time to time.); I would like to see if there might be some meaning to this unexpected event. Or, at least, to muse about what happened?

I’m guessing they couldn’t help but notice that their Papa had lost some vitality since the last time we were together—that, as the eighth chapter of Romans puts it, the mortality of our “mortal bodies” was having its way. If that’s the case, they do well to groan: “We groan inwardly while we wait for the redemption of our bodies.” Between now and then, “the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.” That’s the Spirit of Pentecost that holds us close to Jesus and to one another until That Day when “this mortal body puts on immortality” (1Cor 15:54).

3rd Sunday after Pentecost:

Thou hast created all things,

and for thy pleasure

they are and were created.

(Revelation 4:11)

We just returned from a serendipitous family rendezvous at Mission Beach—all sixteen of us. A beat up, old beach house accommodates us all plus daily visits by extended family and friends. It’s not the beauty of the house that draws us, but the beauty of what can be seen, taken in, and experienced from the house.

From the second story deck we view the ocean, contemplate its waves, and at the right time, make our move with boogie boards, and one day, with the help of friends, even surf boards; to rollick about in the ocean’s watery bounty. Eventually, we walk back across the sand to our beach house and view the wonders from a distance. You need some space to contemplate the wonder of it all. That’s the way it is with beauty. It’s spacious.

Now, we’ve returned to our distant homes with memories of the beauty of creation and the beauty of God’s creatures. Each family has its distance—its God given spaciousness. But there is a longing that maybe one day we can do it again. It is a rehearsal for That Day when we will all be gathered together in the eternal beauty of God’s Glory.

2nd Week after Pentecost:

A fountain of praise.

(Psalm 68:26)

Tuesday, Linda and I watched most all of George Floyd’s four hour funeral. The service was held at “The Fountain of Praise” church in Huston, TX. What a great name for a church: “Fountain of Praise.” I suppose it comes from Psalm 68: “The congregation blesses God like a fountain of praise.”

Our backyard water fountain broke. It’s a complicated custom job rigged up by some creative workers. It took some doing: a big rock almost my size with a hole drilled through the center and set up above a hidden pool of water wherein lies a submergible pump to send water up through the rock which then trickles down like a waterfall. Last week, I flipped on the fountain switch, but nothing happened—no water, no fountain, and no sound of living water. Just a dry lifeless rock where water once flowed.

The funeral at the Fountain of Praise church reminded me of that. Psalm 68 goes on, like most Psalms do, to invite “all the kingdoms of the earth” to come to this fountain. Wouldn’t it be something if “rivers of living water flow” (Jn 6) from hidden pools to moisten and lubricate our dry and fractured nation?

2^nd Sunday after Pentecost:

Your Spirit renews the face of the earth.

(Psalm 104:30)

Since last Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, I’ve been buried away in my Wisdom class Intensive. That’s when the students gather for an Intensive face to face for five days, Monday through Friday, eight hours a day; getting us our forty hours of semester time in one week.

However, this year, because of covid-19, we gathered via Zoom—analogue gave way to digital. Anna helped me through the digital part—how you set up the Zoom meetings; how you make use of the Zoom white board; how you mute and unmute; how you share screen and un-share screen; how you do PowerPoint; and on and on. Anna renewed my spirit and freed me to teach in yet another digital mode. I don’t have too many such learning curves left in me.

Each evening during Intensive, I graded papers while Linda gave me her concerned play-by-play of protest and riots. While we are attending to our studies of Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes along with the Song of Songs and Wisdom Psalms; the world was coming apart. Does such study have anything to say about our troubled world?

We ended our Intensive week attending to Psalm 104. It’s a Wisdom Psalm about how “the earth and the seas, vast and spacious, are teeming with creatures beyond number” (vss 24-25). Wisdom has to do with our love for our Creator’s creation. Even the ant is worthy of our attentiveness and praise (Pr 6).

The Psalm ends acknowledging that though creation takes our breath away, it can also disappoint. Nevertheless, God has “set a boundary that floods/chaos cannot pass” (vs 9). And our Creator “sends his Spirit to breathe life back into his creation” (vss 28-30). Our Creator remains attentive to his creation.