City Called Heaven

It's amazing what the world wide web will tell you. Amazing Grace is a three bedroom, three bathroom mountain top chalet with beautiful views... ( Amazing Grace Chalet - Pigeon Forge, TN ) Amazing Grace ( Cercidiphyllum japonicum ) is a large weeping tree up to 35' tall and more tree-like than typical weeping katsuras... Amazing Grace is mostly vegetarian, but they do serve some chicken and turkey dishes... ( Denver Skiing Lifestyle ) Amazing Grace is our best selling fragrance and was created to make a woman feel and smell infinitely feminine. Amazing Grace allows you to wear a beautiful dress every day of the week... ( philosophy amazing grace for women perfume collection ) This week we will hear the Gospel of John give a different take on grace: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the wo...

I noticed a headline today: Obama's plan to hike taxes meets fierce opposition . NPR told me that the wealthy no longer wish to flaunt private jets, and that television producers are no longer greenlighting projects with "tricked out people living their tricked out lives" ( Marketplace: Less bling on TV screens next season ). Bernie Madoff says his $7 million penthouse and $62 million in investments belong to his wife and have nothing to do with his theft of billions ( Madoff: NYC Penthouse, $62 Million Are Mine ). In completely unrelated news, a friend called seeking help after receiving a foreclosure letter. Another acquaintance, evicted from their apartment, is almost lucky to be sick enough to be in the hospital rather than on the street. The local liquor store reports that business is good. 12.5% of the world (900 million people) is hungry; two thirds of Americans (200 million) are overweight. "Gluttony (from Seven Deadly Demons)," Artemio Rodriguez .

How hard it is to contemplate a fast, Lord, when we already feel starved for what we need. How difficult to walk into the desert, when we already feel barren and alone. Help us in our distress. Whatever our circumstance, give us the grace to know your abundant presence. Feed us with your abiding love. And strengthen us with courage and trust to follow you wherever you would have us go: to wilderness or urban jungle; slum or suburb; hut, skyscraper, or marbled hall; to cross, to tomb, and, we pray, into your eternal kingdom, through Jesus Christ, our fellow pilgrim and Lord. Amen.

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. So began the day, so begins the season. Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, marks the time in the church year when we walk with Jesus to Jerusalem and to the cross. The ashes remind us of Jesus' journey to the cross and of human sin which grieves God. They remind us of our own mortality. And they also serve as a mark of God's grace. As we carry Christ's cross with us, so also we share in his resurrection. This morning, lay ministers from St. Matthew's offered ashes to more than 160 commuters at the Grove Street PATH station, the sixth year now. It is always a bit amazing the way people will stop, sometimes turning around, when they feel that God is close, reaching out to them, touchable. This year our congregation's approach to Lent is to keep it simple. Sunday worship. Wednesday evening gathering for prayer and contemplation with scripture. We'll join with another congregation to walk a labyrinth. S...

For whom this day do we need to pray? For the people answering customer service hotlines... For everyone in debt... For those who work outside in the cold... For those who are homebound... For everyone trying to make a budget or a payroll... For those who are imprisoned... For child soldiers... For those who prepare meals... For Rod Blagojevich... For doubters, and still more for the cynical... For all those who work for the church... For musicians and artists and poets... For AA and NA and OA and GA and DA and all those seeking recovery... For the past and present readers of this blog... For prophets... For parents, siblings, children... And for ourselves, dear Lord, that you may dwell in us. That we may have what we need. That we may be known by others. That love may grow in our lives and relationships. That prayer be often on our lips, that we be blessed to give and to receive, and that you see us safely home to the p...

The post I want to write will take me a little longer. So let me simply offer a few snapshots. I am very fortunate in that I live, work, and attend church in places which have ethnic and other kinds of diversity. But not everywhere I go looks like that. The people on the Mall looked like America. The buses came from everywhere. I talked with a teacher from DeKalb, Illinois, a group of Native Americans from eastern Oregon, local folks from DC. The American idea has always been that we are more than the sum of our parts. [The photo is of Lisa Bellan-Boyer, singing "This Land is Your Land."] During the inauguration ceremony, the area surrounding the Capital, Mall, and parade route was temporarily the 5th largest city in the U.S. The DC folks should have consulted with United for Peace and Justice on crowd management. The numbers were through the roof – the planning was not. My favorite official picture of the day: President-Elect Obama with his hand on the Bible used to swear in...

The images collide in a disturbing way. Santa Claus with a gun? The Christmas Eve killings in Covina, California, are shocking in so many ways. The numbers alone, ten dead and two wounded. A peaceful home invaded, a holiday celebration turned to mayhem. And Santa Claus, that icon of good cheer, and generosity, possessed by vengeance and dealing death. Yet those are not the only colliding images. On the one hand, the prophet Isaiah foresees his nation’s restoration, where only extravagant poetry will begin to evoke the joy of this hoped-for deliverance. The nation and its people are envisioned as a bride and bridegroom, dressed in their finest, with garlands and jewels, the best possible for the best possible occasion. And the long-sought vindication, for which the people burned, is described as a burning torch. Perhaps it is more shocking because we know people like these, we recognize the house they live in. The killer was a church usher who had recently lost his job. The dreams of br...