1 Peter 4:1-8
"Holy" Saturday - Years A, B, C
Anyway. Anywise. Anyhow.
Anyway, given the suffering of the past, now, above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.
Anywise, given the suffering of the past, now, above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.
Anyhow, given the suffering of the past, now, above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.
Any any___ you come at this one, the process of life is fuller life. We are either participating in this game that constantly adds new value, that persistently includes in more folks, or we aren't.
[For more on the sense of the use of the word "game" read the Nobel Prize winning Magister Ludi: The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse - you can catch a bit of it through this excerpt]
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/march2005.html
It really isn't because Jesus suffered that we pay attention to drawing near to G*D and living appropriately to that relationship. Jesus' suffering points out the importance of so living, come what may. The suffering draws attention to living with G*D, not to the suffering, real as it is, itself.
For the sake of our prayers to not give in to temptation (as instructed by Jesus in Gethsemane) we do lead examined lived that are disciplined by that prayer. When so living we will not do everything that is possible or attractive. Rather our keys will be loving one another (Mandate Thursday) and, if we can extend to verse 9, being hospitable (Jesus forming a new family while on the cross).
Now that we are a day away from all the emotion, it is possible to look beyond the surface of the cross and the suffering to the fullness of life issues before us. This is a day of evaluation, just sitting with, our experiences, reflecting on the deeper meanings rather than the spin-doctor short-cut phrases. It is not all about the suffering; it is all about the living.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/march2005.html
I Peter 4:1-8
Job 14:1-14 or Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24
Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16
Matthew 27:57-66 or John 19:38-42
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing, a live thing out of a dead thing? Certainly not a magician. Certainly not positive thinking or prosperity theology. Certainly not an acculturated church. Certainly not individual faith.
It is important at some point to give up hope, to have dead be dead. This day we don't even wait. We go through motions. We become the walking dead.
Yesterday was bad enough. Today is badder yet. Tomorrow will be worser than anything. The end of all things is near. I wouldn't believe a proclamation of good news if it were yelled in my face.
Peter with his "disciplined prayers" and "constant love covering a multitude of sins" can go hang himself with Judas. If there is a next generation, they might listen to that but, today, it's most unreal.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
Proclaiming “the gospel” may not be bound by time. Of course, figuring out what is meant by "gospel" in any given context is difficult. This is one of those wiggly words whose meaning seems to be in the mouth of the utterer.
Presuming that Superman can fly faster than light backward, thus reversing time, there is no reason why the dead and gone can't be posthumously enlightened. And if they can be proclaimed to, why can't they be baptized in absentia? Where is the limit of how we can use the dead for current ends?
On this silent Saturday when a creedal Jesus is off doing his workaholic thing in Sheol or Hell or Wherever, it might also be mentioned that we need to get away from a 2,000+ year-old misconception - that the end of all things is near. Such a concept keeps getting in our way of actually being relevant. You may be interested in how Kevin Kelly puts this in his hour-long conversation with Michael Dowd on a series known as The Advent of Evolutionary Christianity: Conversations at the Leading Edge of Faith (they have a special offerthrough April 25, 2011).
What would happen if we let the dead bury the dead and weren’t speculating quite so much about being eternally secure tomorrow? Perhaps the last line in this passage would be a bit easier to experience - “Above all, maintain constant love for one another....” Ahh, maintaining love after death and before eternity - that sounds doable.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/04/1-peter-41-8.html
Oh sure, deny the denials of life. You can no more give up your human desires than you can escape a gravity field of G*D. To deny your supposed negative passions will also deny your hoped for positive passions. You don’t need to express them, but they cannot be denied. To deny them is to not give an accurate account of your life.
This day is an opportunity to discipline ourselves regarding hope. Without hope that it will make a whit of difference, we commit to love one another, nonetheless.
That which we had counted on, steadfastly, proved to be quite frail. Death came all too easily (which is not to say it was faked), no legs were broken to hasten suffocation. What we wanted to be a loud cry wrecking the world and setting it right turned out to be a last gasp for a last breath and then no more. Not a hoped for bang, but a whimper.
And now a stone-rolled dark tomb. We are reduced from grunt to silence. Only motions are left. We will be gentle and kind with one another. It is the most we can to. Perhaps, in time, more will come; our desires, in both kinds, will return. There is no explaining our reliance upon our memory of a last command. Was it real or not? Whatever. That word, for whatever reason, continues to echo within. And so we do our best to love one another even when love is lost. And Simeon’s blessing comes around; with a sword in our soul we pull out our beads and recite:
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
We will love one another until our death.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/04/1-peter-41-8-saturday.html