Proper 22 B - Song of Solomon 2:11,12 - Change your Moods

"For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land."
~Song of Soloman 2:11,12

" There are seasons in life and there are seasons of the soul - the springtime when faith is born; the summer when faith matures; the reaping and harvesting in the fall; and the dark time, the winter, when you walk over frozen ground and you're sure nothing will ever grow again. I don't know of a single Christian who, in his pilgrimage, could testify that his faith enjoyed springtime always. Everyone has the wintertime of the soul.

Get aquainted with your emotional cycles. Make no decisions in a low time. Make no commitments in a low season. When you're in winter, be calm, be quiet and wait. The mood of strength will return!

The low times that come are generally very natural, very providential. They are planned for you to calm down, slow down, refill, rethink, regroup, realign, get a new perspective, take another check of your values, recheck your goals, and before you know it, winter is passed. Spring returns with a new aspect of your faith reborn. "

" Summer, winter, spring, and fall
God is in control of all. "

Robert H. Schuller, Living Powerfully One Day at a Time; Fleming H. Revell Company, Old Tappan, New Jersey; 1982. Pg. 147.

Proper 22 B - Mark 7:9-13 - It Belongs to God - Robert Lupton

NOTE FROM SHAUN: I realize that Mk 7:9-13 is, unfortunately, cut out of the passage in this week's lection, but Lupton gives a great commentary for today's church on the context Jesus' words in this section...

corban: an ancient Hebrew practice of dedicating property to God, thus removing it from secular disposition, while still retaining onwership...

" It was an ingenious invention, really. Corban...a donor could make a contract with the church to dedicate certain of his holdings to the Lord but still use them for collateral in business dealings. Like most religious schemes, corban fell into abuse... It was on this point that Jesus offered come unwelcome words... (Mark 7:9-13)... to commit wealth in any form to God and then refuse to allow its use for those things God commands is sin. Shrewd sin. But sin nonetheless.

The practice of corban has resurfaced throughout church history... Corban indicates the extent to which religious people have taken control over the kingdom they call God's.

The church of which we are all a part has not escaped this tension. We too are pulled between the instinct for self-preservation and the yearning to spend our security on the intangibles of kingdom reality... It is hard to imagine how much of the assets of the kingdom are reserved in the endowments, dedicated funds, and certificates of deposit in the Western church. The Hebrews called it corban. We call it stewardship...

It is corban when we dam up the flow of our Lord's resources in restricted reservoirs against his kingdom's future needs, when those resources are required to provide employment and shelter for the very ones he affectionately calls "the least of these".

The Church is the only institution which, without irresponsibility, can expend all its resources on great and lavish bursts of compassion. It is ordained to give itself away, yet without loss. The Church, above all earthly symbols, bears the responsibility for declaring in the outpouring of resources, the utter dependability of God. To preserve its life is to lose it. "

Robert Lupton, There's is the Kingdom: Celebrating the Gospel in Urban America; Harper Collins; New York, NY; 1989; Pgs 90-91.

Proper 22 B - James 1:19 - Charles Swindoll

James 1:19
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be
quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

"Check out Christ with the woman at the well (John 4). He could have blown her away with an endless barrage of verbal artillery. He didn't. He genuinely listened when she spoke; He "listened slowly." He read the lines of anxiety on her face and felt the weight of guilt in her heart. As she talked, He peered deeply into the well of her soul. It wasn't long before she found herself completely open, yet not once did she feel forced or needlessly embarrassed. His secret? He listened. He studied every word, each expression. Even the tone of her voice.

What does it take? Several things. Rare qualities. Like caring. Time. Unselfinshness. Concentration. Holding the other person in high esteem. Sensitivity. Tolerance. Patience. Self-control. And - perhaps most of all - allowing room for silence while the other person is thinking and trying to get the words out. Wise is the listener who doesn't feel compelled to fill up all the blank spaces with verbiage."