EPC Resources
March 8th, 2022
John Donne (1572–1631)
Death Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnet X)
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy'or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
March 7th, 2022
Wendell Berry
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go.
Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
March 4th, 2022
Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)
Christ Has No Body
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
March 3rd, 2022
Mary Oliver
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
March 2nd, 2022
For Lent, 1966
For Lent, 1966”
By Madeleine L’Engle
It is my Lent to break my Lent,
To eat when I would fast,
To know when slender strength is spent,
Take shelter from the blast
When I would run with wind and rain,
To sleep when I would watch.
It is my Lent to smile at pain
But not ignore its touch.
It is my Lent to listen well
When I would be alone,
To talk when I would rather dwell
In silence, turn from none
Who call on me, to try to see
That what is truly meant
Is not my choice. If Christ’s I’d be
It’s thus I’ll keep my Lent.
2/27/22
This coming Sunday we celebrate Transfiguration Sunday, told in three of the four synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This Sunday we will read from Luke, as we are in the third cycle of the lectionary, year C.
Peter, James, and John go up the mountain with Jesus to pray and this is where the transfiguration takes place, including the appearance of Moses and Elijah.
The word "transfiguration" comes from the Latin roots *trans*- ("across") and *figura* ("form, shape"). It thus signifies a change of form or appearance, and that is exactly what happens. Jesus becomes radiant and glorious with light.
Transfiguration Sunday marks the transition between the season of Epiphany and the season of Lent. At Epiphany, Jesus’ identity as fully God in fully human form is revealed to us. At Transfiguration, Jesus’ transformation into radiant light hints at the great scope of his work, a thought we will take with us as we journey through Lent toward Holy Week and Easter.
For all the lectionary selections for this coming Sunday, visit this site:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=116
Our First Covid Christmas
Click the link below to read how we impacted Nashville in Christmas of 2020.
Build Up
In this week’s gospel story (Mark 12:38-44), often called “the widow’s mite,” Jesus is commenting on hypocritical behavior (sin) and generous behavior (stewardship or tithing).
In this scene, Jesus raises up the person most people would look down upon, and he criticizes the person most people would give respect.
Jesus is certainly discouraging hypocritical behavior and encouraging generous giving for the building up of the church community.
But he is also talking about our inner state of being and how this determines the quality of our days, life in this world, and whether or not we taste the “kingdom of heaven among us.” The Apostle Paul, St. Augustine, and Luther all wrote about this problem. All of them describe the core problem as human beings suffering from “incurvatus in se,” being blindly turned in on themselves.
A life that looks good on the outside, but is inwardly driven by selfishness, rigid private agendas and the pursuit of “measuring up” at all costs is a life turned in on itself, cut off from fluid relationality to others and to the Divine.
A life of open-heartedness and relationality, like that of Jesus Christ, is the opposite of being turned in on oneself.
A life of generosity – whether wealthy or poor – is the opposite of being turned in on oneself.
Take a look at all the lectionary readings for Sunday here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=228
See you Sunday!
Jane
The First Commandments
The gospel reading for this coming Sunday is Mark 12:28-34 in which we witness a conversation between Jesus and a scribe regarding the first commandments. We know this commandment well: “to love…” to love God and to love others as we love ourselves. Mark 12:28-34.
The crowd is left speechless as they hear Jesus and this scribe agree so wholeheartedly on which commandment is the greatest and what it means.
What is this love that leaves them without words? Is it a feeling? A thought? A right belief or doctrine? A right group to which they might or might not belong?
Richard Rohr reminds us that first century Christians did not have doctrine or dogma. They did not have a singular identity as a people, but were Jews, gentiles, men, women, rich, poor, slaves, free, and citizens. They called themselves followers of “the way.” Perhaps the love of which Jesus and the scribe spoke is “the way,” a way of being, a way of acting, a way of living.
We will ponder more on these questions as well as others, as we take the gospel passage alongside the Deuteronomic text from which Jesus and his interlocutor reference.
Take a look at all the passages for this Sunday’s lectionary here: https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=227
See you Sunday!
Jesus Heals A Blind Man
What are we to do with this week’s gospel lesson of Jesus healing the blind man?
I am not always sure what the gospel healings mean to me or to contemporary Christians.
We each have a life cycle: being born, living, and one day passing on into the next life. This same life cycle applied to the people Jesus healed, even to Lazarus who was raised from death.
So what do healings mean? How are we to understand them?
Should we take the healing stories as metaphors for spiritual renewal. I do.
Should we regard them as mythological language that speaks to deep truths about the human condition and our ever-evolving relationship to what we call the divine? I do.
Should we dare to believe that God’s miraculous healings still take place, that Christians can and should pray for wholeness and healing for themselves and for each other? I do.
All these questions arise for me when I read the accounts of healings, and for this I am grateful. Within my own heart, and amongst fellow believers, these questions lead to rich discussion and heartfelt prayer. God uses our intellectual questions as well as the current situations in our lives to speak to our faith lives through the Living Word. This too is a miracle in my mind.
Take a look at all the lectionary readings for Sunday here, including the gospel reading:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=225
See you Sunday!
Jane