Posts Tagged ‘Luke 4:1-13’
Abide and Resist – Br. Keith Nelson
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It feels to me as if a great unraveling is underway in our world – and especially in our own nation.
Perhaps it began years ago, but the recent stripping away of structures and protections that safeguard basic features of our democracy is a sign of its acceleration in recent weeks.
Knowing just how to respond – skillfully, lovingly, and faithfully – is no easy task. There are many temptations to wander down paths that don’t lead to larger life. On the one hand, there is the temptation to “doom scroll”: in the quest for genuine information and analysis, we may end up marinating our hearts in a froth of anger, fear, despair, and cynicism. On the other hand, the temptation may be to tune out entirely, insulating ourselves from the endless, terrible news so that we can simply face the day ahead of us in relative peace.
For most people I know, the predominant feeling is helplessness: a feeling of utter impotence to effect change or stem the tide of so much that is being lost. “What can we actually do?,” is the question I hear the most. It is a question at the center of my own prayerful discernment, and in our discernment as a community.
Part of what we can do – the central part, for us, as followers of Jesus – we are already doing. We are here. You came here this morning with some measure of hope in your heart and a need for God’s mercy and truth. Every warm body and heart counts, and every scrap of hope and ounce of need builds up the Body of Christ. Read More
Life in Union with God – Br. James Koester
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The First Sunday in Lent
Deuteronomy 26: 1-11
Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-16
Romans 10: 8 b-13
Luke 4: 1-13
It was the fall of 1999 and I was in Jerusalem for the first time. I was there on sabbatical and was attending a course at St. George’s College. A week or so after arriving we all piled onto a bus and headed for Cairo. We were to spend about 10 days in Egypt and Jordan stopping at various sites along the way. One place we stopped was St. Anthony’s Monastery near the Red Sea. As its name suggests, this is where St. Anthony the Great, who is known as the Father of Monasticism, lived alone in the Fourth Century. After our visit to the monastery we went to the cave where Anthony actually lived. The cave is high up on a hillside and requires a climb of several hundred steps, but I decided not to go. Everyone else hiked up the hill, and from all reports had a wonderful time. As enthusiastic as everyone was after having been in the cave where
St. Anthony lived, I have never regretted my decision. I decided not to visit the cave because I thought that the best way for me to honour St. Anthony was not by visiting his cave, along with everyone else, but rather by doing what he did, by being alone in the wilderness. I spent the hour or so while everyone was up the hill, sitting on a rock gazing out at the endless barren landscape. Read More
Temptation – Br. David Vryhof
Lent I — Luke 4:1-13
If I were to show you a drawing of a person with a tiny angel perched on one shoulder and a tiny devil perched on the other, I have no doubt you would recognize immediately what the picture was trying to convey. Temptation is a universal phenomenon, isn’t it? All of us know what it is to be tempted. Read More